A kunai in time
by W. J. Wennings
Summary: Life was simple, Naruto was the Hokage and his wife, Tenten worked in her father's weapon shop, everything was perfect until everything changed. The traitor Sasuke Uchiha attacked the leaf and in a final ditch effort to save the village Naruto unsealed the Kyuubi. Now with her husband gone, Kurama gives her a chance to change everything what will she do. [Time Travel] [Naruten]
1. Chapter 1

**Here we go boyz, a new Naruto fanfiction that I've been writing in between my Drunken Knightshade Marriage. It's a time travel fanfiction if you couldn't tell, I've read similar fics in which future naruto's future wife teams up with the Kyuubi in order to have her husband alive again.**

**It's a thing that happens.**

* * *

There she stood watching as her husband's casket was lowered into the earth. He was a hero, he was a lover and now all of that was taken from him far too soon. Tenten loved him with all her heart and soul, Naruto hadn't started off well, hell he wasn't even on her radar of potential boyfriend material. When he was younger he was loud, crude, obnoxious and if the villagers were to be believed a nuisance.

It wasn't until after the fourth great war did she start to notice him. The way he selflessly came to the aid of others, the gleam he got in his eye when he saw the people closest to him smile. She would never be able to see it again, however, Naruto had sacrificed everything for this village growing up and know he had finally sacrificed the one thing you can never get back his own life.

The day started off like any other, she woke up next to the man she loved. He would always wake up first and when she finally woke he would be staring down at her with love in his eyes. She kissed him, he kissed her and eventually one thing led to another, once they had finally got out of bed and showered it was back to their lives, Naruto had completed his dream of becoming Hokage and Tenten had taken over the weapons shop after her father passed away.

It was all a normal day till a large glowing purple armor was seen advancing on the Konoha outer wall. It turned out that Sasuke Uchiha had finally come to make good on his promise of destroying Konoha, with him it seemed he brought the remaining army of white Zetsu. In the end, Sasuke had failed.

There had been casualties on both side's and Naruto had been driven into a corner so he used his final trump card, he unsealed the Kyuubi. In doing so he had given his life for the village he grew up in, the same village that had hated him for many years of his life.

Kurama sat and watched his previous host and partner being lowered into the ground. He felt a feeling akin to loneliness as he watched Naruto's wife cry silent tears, he wrapped one of his tail's around her for comfort. She buried her face into his tail and wailed.

"I can't believe he's gone," she sobbed. Karama stared down at the human that was using him as tissue with sorrow filled eyes. He could do something, it was forbidden even for the Bijuu... but he could do it.

The giant fox sighed, he resigned himself to his decision. **"He doesn't have to be."**

Tenten looked up with tear stained eyes. "Wha... what?"

"I can send you back before this, so far back that you could change his loneliness."

Tentens eyes widened with hope, "Do it!" She said without hesitation. She didn't care whether it meant traveling to the realm of the shinigami, she was getting her husband back.

Kurama nodded before weaving through a few hand signs, his body became chakra and it surrounded the brunette's body. She could feel her body moving on its own as it weaved some hand signs she didn't recognize, her world turned black.

* * *

She eventually woke up, did it work? She looked around and saw a room she hadn't called her's in years, it was her dad's house right above their weapon shop. 'When am I?'

**'A few days before Naruto became a genin,'** the familiar voice of the Kyuubi spoke within her mind. She would be lying if she said she didn't freak out at first, but she was the wife of an Uzumaki and if there were anything and Uzumaki does not do, is lie.

'Kurama? How can I hear you?... Were are you?"

**'Inside your mind child. This was the only way I could find, I turned you into a jinchiriki in order for you to save Naruto from his loneliness.'**

His words resonated within her, she was a jinchiriki now, she was like him now. That train of thought brought a smile to her face, 'Then I can protect him.'

The fox smirked as he heard the girls thoughts, she wasn't like Naruto was, she had no talent for keeping her thoughts to herself. **'Yes. This way once we make contact with Naruto I can share with him your memories, it'll be like having your husband back when he was 13.'**

She slightly cringed at the thought of a 13-year-old husband, they couldn't do what a married couple could for another 2 years by Konoha law. A small price to pay for more time with him.

"Ten-chan!" Called the familiar voice of her father, Ojiro. She felt tears beginning to pool in the corners of her eyes, she had missed her father ever since he passed away a year after she and Naruto got married.

"Coming!" She yelled back, trying to keep the sobs back, she couldn't let him know she was crying. He would only ask questions that she couldn't answer without sounding like a nut case, after calming down and wiping her tears she left her room.

Reaching their living room she immediately smiled as she saw him, standing at 5'9 with short brown hair. He wore a tan dress shirt tucked into a pair of black dress pants. Tenten questioned this, was something important supposed to happen today.

"Ten-chan did you forget," he said, she looked at him confused. "Were visiting your mother today."

She mouthed 'O' before dashing back to her room, how could she have not known. Her father never dressed up for anything, their annual visit to her mothers grave is the only time she didn't see her father. in that old leather apron, work gloves, a white shirt, and blue jeans. She sighed and opened her closet, what to wear.

She decided upon a lovely knee length red dress with golden floral prints, she wore her hair in her usual double buns. once she was ready she and her father left the house in the direction of the Konoha cemetery.

**Here lies ChiChi**

**Mother, Wife, friend**

She sat in front of the gravestone as her father poured water over the stone and placed the ceremonial incense. They prayed together before he placed a hand on her shoulder and telling her that he'll see her at home. Tenten was incredibly grateful for this time, she was close with her mother ever since she was born.

"Hey, Kaa-san, how are you?"

"I suppose you know I'm not really 14, I couldn't turn down the fox's offer. I had to get him back." The memory of her beloved husband as she remembered him at the chunin exams. She had the passing thought that he was cute but never would have imagined him being her husband at the time. She was scared to see him, in a strange way it felt as if he wasn't her Naruto, sure he'll grow up to be the man she fell in love with but he's not currently her's.

"I hope you can give me courage, I'll be sure to make things right this time." She offered a silent 'I love you' before turning and walking off. She smiled at the thought of seeing him again, she couldn't wait.

'I've got my second chance and I'll make everything right.'

One of Tenten's biggest regrets as a wife was never becoming a mother. They had talked about it and it seemed as if they were ready, but it never happened. Either she had missions that kept her away from home for weeks if not months at a time or Naruto had Hokage duties that required his full attention. Not this time, this time she would have a much longer life with him.

* * *

Naruto walked calmly through the streets of Konoha, it was a quiet and calm day. He hadn't pulled a prank all day and no one's tried anything with him. Plus there was his genin exam tomorrow, he couldn't wait he was so excited.

He was walking with his hands resting on the back of his head and his eyes pointed upward, so it was no surprise when he knocked into someone, he fell to the ground and his eyes went wide when he saw the person he had run into. She was stunning in her red dress, her skin was light and creamy and those flower patterns on her dress were spectacular. She wore her brown hair up in twin buns at the back of her head, she stared at him and he stared at her in return.

'Oh Kami, it's him. Wha-What do I do? What do I say?"

**'Calm down girl,'** Kyuubi commanded. Tenten nodded before she noticed a hand held out to her, she followed the arm back to its source and found it connected to the man of her dreams. She took his hand and Naruto pulled her to her feet.

'Her hands are so soft.' Naruto thought

The blush on his cheeks deepened as he pulled her too hard and she fell forward. Her body made contact with his, she blushed and felt her heart hasten. 'Calm down Tenten, it's just your husband... who doesn't know he's my husband.'

"S-Sorry," he stuttered out while rubbing at the back of his neck. "I guess I dont know my own strength."

"I-Its f-fine, no harm done."

A moment of awkward silence passed between them. "My name's Tenten," she said, even if she couldn't tell him she was his wife yet, there was no way he wasn't going to know her name before the end of this interaction.

"Nice to meet you Tenten-chan," Naruto greeted. The chan suffix didn't go unnoticed by Tenten. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki."

"Hello Naruto-kun, sorry for running into you."

"n-no im sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I suppose I was to busy thinking about my genin exam tomorrow."

She arched an eyebrow. That gives her a timeframe of how far back she was. she remembered right Naruto's control sucked. "Genin exam, so you're going to be a ninja?"

"Not just any ninja, I'm going to be Hokage one day," Naruto exclaimed. Tenten smiled at this, he definitely will become Hokage he was inducted after they dated for 3 years. She blushed as she remembered his inauguration, it was a special day for them both, not only did he finally achieve his dream after so many years but he had to go and do something crazy... he proposed during his own inauguration.

"Well then, you must be really something, huh."

"I will be, I just have to get through the exam... this time," he tried to be as quiet as possible when he said those last two words but to no avail, Tenten heard him clearly.

"This time? You having trouble with something. I've been a genin for a year already, maybe I can give you some advice."

Naruto looked at her suspiciously, "Well, I've got everything pretty much down... and im pretty confident when it comes to the written portion. But im terrible with the bunshin," Naruto explained. Tenten nodded, she remembered how he used to explain how terrible he was at it, she had come to know that he would never be able to perform something as simple as regular clone jutsu. 'Time to change that.'

"You said your last name was Uzumaki right?"

"Yeah."

"Well then that could be your problem, every Uzumaki is born with large chakra reserves which make basic jutsu like the bunshin next to impossible unless you have jonin level control," she explained silently thanking Naruto for explaining to her. "Its kinda like overfilling a water balloon."

"But im an orphan, im sure they just gave me that name."

She cursed, she had forgotten he was an orphan, he certainly never act like one. "Not necessarily, A lot of times orphanage's won't even bother giving you the last name. Like my teammate Rock Lee, what kinda idiot adult would name a kid rock."

Naruto looked unsure. Tenten wanted to assure him that yes he was an Uzumaki, but she couldn't just come out with it and say. 'Hey, Naruto-kun. My real names Tenten Uzumaki, im your wife from the future. I know stuff you haven't learned yet like... You really are an Uzumaki and your mother was named Kushina Uzumaki.'

**'You worry too much.'**

'I think I worry just the right amount for a wife whose husband is 13 and has no idea who you are.'

Kyuubi rolled his eyes. 'Just make prolonged physical contact and I'll take care of the rest.'

She blushed at the thought of physical contact, if they were older it would have another meaning but for them at their current age, what was she supposed to do hold his hand. She and Naruto walked until they found themselves at training ground 7, she had fond memory's here. They had come here once and had a picnic together back when they were still just friends, he had passed it off as him just returning the favor after she helped him with his kenjutsu training, it was romantic. He had brought her to a red and white checkered blanket he had set up underneath a single tree that faced a large pond. It was halfway through the meal when he asked me to be his girlfriend, he was obviously out of his element and nervous and it showed, but it also showed how sincere he was about it, she couldn't help but accept. They walked side by side, she noticed Naruto kept giving her side glance's and bristled away when she tried to get closer until he just stopped walking entirely she didn't notice at first and when she did she was about 3-4 feet away from the blonde.

"What's wrong Naruto-kun?"

"What do you want?!" Naruto exclaimed, his voice contained both anger and confusion but they were mild compared to what she had felt in the past. Tenten was confused at first but quickly shook the confusion out of her head, of course, he was trust issues. He was mistreated for the entirety of his life, it was no wonder why he was wary around strangers. He probably only followed her out here because she was a kid herself, even if mentally she's in her late twenties. She sighed and placed her left hand on her right shoulder. 'Maybe I can use this.'

**'Bate him into a fight? He was always hotheaded growing up.'**

"What do you mean Naruto-kun," she let her playful side out for a moment, he stepped closer to her and she could see he was getting angry.

"I dont like being played with," he basically growled at her, oh she was getting him back for that one. He stepped closer, she stepped closer to the point they were inches apart. She nocked his feet out from under him, he fell to the ground with a small thud she was on top of him in moments. Naruto panicked as he tried to free himself from underneath the girl but it was a futile effort due to her being physically stronger, he cursed under his breath. 'I should have taken my training seriously.'

Tenten smiled as she placed both hands on his cheeks, successfully forcing his lips to pucker as she planted a kiss onto his. She couldn't have been happier, this was it she had full filled her end of the bargain. She created the long physical contact, well it was going to be long if she had anything to say about it. Naruto's eyes widened as he felt her warm and soft lips on his, he didn't know what to think. Was this a new effort to poison him? Putting it in his food wasn't bad enough they were putting it in lipstick now. He tried to resist but couldn't stop her from intruding into his mouth with her tongue, his and hers wrestled for supremacy as Naruto moaned into the kiss, 'If this is how I die, it's not so bad.'

**'That's perfect,'** Kyuubi exclaimed as their bodies started to bubble with the beast's red chakra. She cracked opened her eyes to see his red demon eyes looking back into her own matching pair of red orbs before closing them and melting into the kiss. The Kyuubi's chakra making quick work of restoring Naruto's future memory's, she could feel his hand caressing her cheek she couldn't hold back any longer she needed this, she needed the man she loved again. They parted, no evidence of their intimate moment except for the silvery line of saliva that connected the two.

All the memory's that he had spent with her started flooding back to him. Their first date, the second, how he proposed to her during his inauguration, the feelings of happiness and joy as the tears left her eyes, she couldn't say yes fast enough. The memories of their first time together, it was odd to watch himself having sex with his wife from her perspective, her father's death and how she didn't leave their room for weeks afterward Naruto waited on her hand and foot every step of the way. Remembering his own death wasn't pleasant, after all, he had done for the bastard, Sasuke still fell further into the darkness. He was beyond saving.

He was reminiscing on the memories of the Kyuubi's offer and his wife's acceptance before he felt warm water droplets falling from the heavens. He opened his eyes and saw the most sinful thing he could imagine, tear streaming out of his lovely wife's wonderful eyes. He sat up still with his beloved in his lap, he felt tears pooling into his own eyes as he embraced her, he rubbed her back as he had done time and time again, he placed small butterfly kisses up and down her cheek. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head into his shoulder.

"I've missed you so much," she managed to say between sobs.

"Shh... shh I know my love, I know," Naruto whispered into her ear as he gently stroked her back. He felt as if he should be angry with her for throwing away her future as she had done, but after the memory sharing, he couldn't really blame her. She was alone and scared, she felt as if her whole world had crashed down upon her.

"Ya know, experiencing sex from the perspective of the other person, might have been the weirdest thing I have ever seen. And I've seen zetzu," Naruto joked, she chuckled as she lifted her head from his shoulder and placed her forehead onto his. They stared lovingly into each other's eyes for what seemed like forever.

* * *

The couple sat together in Naruto's apartment, Tenten was curled up on the couch with her feet up as she lay on her husband's lap. Naruto smiled down at his wife's content face as he gently stroked her forehead with his thumb. She stared up at him, she had done it she had her man back and there was nothing in heaven or hell that could take that away from her.

"Ten-chan, I should get you home before your Tou-san starts to worry?" Naruto said while rubbing her cheek with his thumb. Sure he wanted her to stay, they were technically married or at least as far as they were concerned but too the outside world they were not and a young maiden shouldn't be staying over her, now boyfriend/ future husbands house.

"Cant I stay the night," she whined before adopting a sultry smirk. "We could alway's."

"No Ten-chan, we may be bound together but im still 13 while your 14. Beside's, if I accidentally got you pregnant at such a young age, your father would kill me."

Tenten pouted, "Your right... im not looking forward to losing my virginity again," she said as she sat up, Naruto kissed her passionately before getting up from the couch and walking to the door.

"Say's you, how many guys can say the claimed the virginity of the same girl twice," he joked as he walked out the door, she rolled her eyes before following close behind.

"Besides I have a big day tomorrow and need my rest."

"Speaking of the genin exam, what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"What do you mean?"

Tenten rolled her eyes as she smiled, "You know what I mean, are you going to show them just what Naruto Uzumaki can do?"

Naruto pondered this for a moment while adopting a thinking pose. It was a good question, along with her memory's of their relationship he received memory's from Kurama about the life he lived without her, he had the knowledge to perform all the jutsu he had used in the future. He could intentionally fail and let the timeline play out just as it's meant to, or he could ace the test.

"The first time I failed and Mizuki-teme used that chance to get me to steal the forbidden scroll. No need putting myself in harm's way," he said after having decided to pass. Though he wouldn't go too far, no need raising suspicion. The test was simple enough, first a henge then a Kawarimi and finally a bunshin, he could perform the henge and kawarimi in his sleep and he had become so proficient with the kage bunshin to the point he didn't even need to make a hand sign in order to mold his chakra.

"It won't be too hard to pass, I might even get rookie of the year," he shrugged as they walked up to the front steps of her house.

"I have very little doubt in that," she said as she walked onto the front step, she turned around and stared at her beloved. She wanted to scream when she saw his orange jumpsuit, it had taken her months of constant work to get him to wear something a little more traditional for a ninja and ditch the full body jumpsuit. "Promis me you'll get some new clothes."

"awww," he whines. "But Ten-chan, orange is my favorite color."

"Well, you dont have to wear a full body orange jumpsuit!" She exclaimed, it wasn't a yell but it wasn't an indoor voice neither.

"Fine."

"Thank you."

He grabbed her hands in his own and smiled as she blushed. "I love you Ten-chan."

"I love you too Naru-kun," she said before leaning in and giving him a chaste kiss before turning and moving back inside. It was such a long day so much had happened, she was exhausted. But it seems she couldn't just go to sleep because as she turned the corner to head up the stairs she came face to face with her father who wore a large smile that threaten to split his head in two.

* * *

**I know, I know im evil for ending it here but I feel like I've written a lot and personally I want to leave this talk for next chapter. I've already worked it out.**

**Gods, when I get an idea in my head I just run with it dont I. I hope you guys liked this because I did**

**I got the idea when I read a fic where Shizune was his wife and traveled back in time to save him from both his loneliness and his future death. I originally wanted to make this a Naruto x Shizune fic but figured that I would need a suitable replacement for her as she would be traveling with Tsunade.**

**So Kyuubi turned Tenten into a jinchiriki. I played with the thought of the Kyuubi inside Tenten transferring itself into Naruto and combining with his Kyuubi, but I think I like the idea of keeping Tenten as the other nine-tails jinchiriki.**

**That also plays a part later on when she and Temari have their fight. Other fics of the same or similar nature have Naruto relearning the jutsu, but if the Kyuubi restored his memories then wouldn't that mean he remembers how to perform said jutsu.**


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto sat at his table as he ate a breakfast that consisted of a ham omelet, he had a big day today which means he needed all the energy he could get. He wore a plain black shirt with the Uzumaki swirl in the center of his upper back and a pair of cargo shorts.

Once finished with his meal he deposited his dishes into his sink before slipping on his ninja sandals and walking out the door. Today was a fresh start for him, he couldn't afford to be the class clown he once was he had a future to prevent and nothing would get in his way.

He walked through the streets in full view of everyone, he didn't care for the hateful glair's or sneer's he receives. This was him and he wasn't going to feel ashamed for who he was, admittedly Naruto had muscle though he hid it well underneath his usual baggy jumpsuit.

He walked into class and immediately he could feel eyes on him. He looked up and saw the majority of the class staring at him, a multitude of this running through their minds like how he wasn't wearing his usual orange or the fact that his muscle mass was rather impressive for someone of his age. He took a seat next to one of the only people he could call his friend, Shikamaru Nara. The Nara heir was a genius there was no doubt about that but his incredible brain was ever only matched by his incredible laziness.

"Hey Naruto, ready to fail again," exclaimed the voice of Kiba Inuzuka from behind him, he turned and saw the feral boy smirking as if he had said the funniest thing in the world. He didn't offer much in the way of an answer other than a confident smirk of his own that seemed to work for Kiba.

He turned around just in time to watch the daily spectacle of Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka racing into the classroom in hopes of sitting next to Sasuke Uchiha.

"Ha, beat you again billboard brow!"

"Are you blind pig, I was clearly ahead of you."

"By a forehead maybe," Naruto mumbled, he had grown out of his crush for the pinkette banshee, all she cared about was Sasuke. It mattered very little what kinda awful things he had done she would always support him. The two had actually dated before Naruto had fallen for Tenten, in fact, that may have been one of the deciding factors in his current relationship.

One day while he and the pinkette were getting intimate she moaned out that traitorous bastards name, that was the last straw for Naruto. He didn't know what to do but one thing was clear he had to get away from her, in the end, Tenten comforted a depressed Naruto and he ended whatever remained of his relationship with Sakura. Last he had heard she left the leaf saying she was going to find the man she loved.

"Alright class, take your seats," Iruka Umino said as he walked into the room. Naruto had to make a conscious effort not to run up to the man and tackle him with a hug. Iruka had been the one to attend his wedding in place of his own father. Then came the man Naruto most hated, Mizuki.

"Alright, let's jump straight into it. Mizuki-san and I will be conduction your graduation exams."

Mizuki nodded and plastered a fake smile onto his face, "The exam will be broken up into four portions, the written test, kunai and shuriken throwing, a taijutsu test and finally the ninjutsu test were you will be expected to do three jutsu. The henge, kawarimi, and bunshin."

Naruto sighed as they started calling students. Sometimes he hated being an Uzumaki it always meant that when something was done in alphabetical order he would always be towards the last. He zoned out the chunin as he began thinking about his beloved, she had done so much for him already and he felt the need to do something for her. She uprooted her whole life and accepted a demon inside of her in order to travel back in time to be with him, what could he possibly do to repay that.

-break-

While Naruto was busy with his genin exam, Tenten was busy watching her father freak out about how his 'baby' girl having her first boyfriend.

"Tou-san! Calm down," she exclaimed having become tired of watching the man paise back and forth. He sighed before sitting down at the table in the chair just opposite from her own.

"Ok... What's his name," he said with a smile. He was very proud that his baby girl had found a boyfriend, he was worried that she would end up with one of the guys from her team. Not that they were bad guys but they were strange, Neji was arrogant while Lee was... just strange.

"His name's Naruto Uzumaki," she said dreamily, her father stiffened a bit before relaxing. He knew of Naruto and it pained him to see how others treated him, being an ex-shinobi as well as owning a weapons shop he was quite knowledgeable when it came to sealing scrolls. Naruto was just the scroll while the Kyuubi was the kunai.

He smiled, glad his daughter didn't just follow the other children's lead and bully the boy. "What else can you tell me about him?"

"He's the kindest most caring person you'll ever meet, his dream is to become Hokage his favorite color is orange," there was a glint in her eyes as she talked about him.

"Yeah, I remember he wears a bright orange jumpsuit."

"I talked him into some new clothes,"

"How long have you two been together?"

She knew this was coming. "A year now," she lied. "I wanted to tell people but Naruto figured it would be best to keep it secret."

Ojiro narrowed his eyes, "Why?! Is he ashamed to be dating my daughter!"

"No! no... it's not like that, it's just. . . you know how he's been treated around the village. He figured if people knew about us, then they would try to hurt me." Ojiro smiled, he didn't know this Naruto kid well enough to know for sure but if he's that concerned with his daughters well being than he sounded like a good guy.

"So... when do I get to meet him?" It was a monumental day in fatherhood when you get the chance to scare the snot out of your daughter's boyfriend.

"I can ask if he wants to come over tonight for dinner, would that be ok?" Ojiro nodded before the brunette went out for the day.

-break-

"Naruto Uzumaki," Iruka called. The blonde stood and walked out of the classroom and into the private room they had set up for taking the test, the first thing he noticed after entering the room was a large fake smile courtesy of Mizuki.

"Alright Naruto, this is your last exam for the day, well be asking you to perform the three jutsu we teach here. The henge, kawarimi and the bunshin, any questions." Mizuki' smile seemed to taunt Naruto.

"Ya does it have to be the standard bunshin?"

"No, if you know another bunshin jutsu than you may perform that," Iruka confirmed. Mizuki inwardly sneered, 'As if this demon knows another bunshin.'

Iruka sat down in a chair beside Mizuki behind a desk. "Alright first up is the henge."

Naruto nodded, "Henge," he exclaimed as he was enveloped in smoke, once it dispersed Iruka and Mizuki stared dumbly at a perfect copy of the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

"Very good Naruto, now. . . . . dodge," Iruka said as Mizuki threw a kunai at the blonde. He let the kunai implant into his chest before 'Naruto' vanished into smoke only to later be revealed as a wooden chair.

Mizuki sneered, 'How can he do these with little to no trouble. If this keeps up my plan is ruined.'

"Well done, now I need you to summon at minimum 2 clone's."

Naruto dug his hands in his pockets, his blue chakra surged and for a moment became visible. "Kage Bunshin no jutsu," he exclaimed as three perfect clones of Naruto appeared. Iruka was surprised, the Kage bunshin was a jonin level skill a mere academy student shouldn't know it, and let alone to do it without a hand sign Mizuki wanted to throttle the so-called 'demon-brat,' after all his planning and trick's Naruto passed which means he had to resort to plan B to get him the forbidden scroll.

"Very good Naruto-kun, Come get your headband and you may go for the rest of the day," Iruka said proudly as he watched his 'brother' walk up and grab a headband before turning and walking away.

Naruto walked out of the academy, tomorrow would be his last time in the academy, when he came to be placed on a team. If everything went as history depicts he should be placed on a team with Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi he was not looking forward to that.

Kakashi clearly showed favoritism to the Uchiha, whether it be because of some sort of debt he feels he owes Obito or the civilian counsel pressuring him to do it he didn't know. Sasuke was arrogant and despite being privately trained by Kakashi still betrayed the leaf for the snake sannin. Sakura was the worst part, she would hit him over the head all because Sasuke showed no interest in her.

He kept walking until he saw a familiar set of buns. Tenten was running up to him with a bright smile on her face, once she made it to him she practically tackled him in a hug. He had no problem returning it and gently rubbed her back.

"I passed Ten-chan," he whispered into her ear. She broke the embrace much to Naruto's chagrin.

"That's great Naruto-kun, as congratulations I want you to come over for dinner tonight," she said with confidence. Naruto was nervous and it was painfully obvious. "You dont have to be nervous, you've met my Tou-san before."

"Yeah, and last time he tried to kill me while screaming about how I deflowered his daughter."

"He wouldn't have killed you. . . probably."

"Yeah well, it didn't help that you jumped my bone the second you thought we were alone," Naruto said flatly. Tenten giggled as he took her by the hand, they walked in the direction of the brunette's house.

"So. . . What's going to happen now, I mean the first time around you stopped Mizuki-teme."

"Not to worry, Iruka-sensei will be enough to stop him. . . and if not I may have accidentally slipped a note onto Jiji-chan's desk about his plan and the meeting place."

Tenten smirked, "You've really thought this through," she said as they walked up to the door of the weapons shop. Naruto had to suppress a nervous sigh as she opened the door and they walked in.

Walking through the shop and up the stair's that led to the living area for her and her father, Naruto found him sitting there on the couch. He smiled to himself as he looked at the man he would one day call father.

"Hello, sir," Naruto said Tenten eyed him

He was being stiff.

Ojiro stood up from the couch and walked over toward the young couple. He smiled when he saw the glint in his daughter's eyes, "No need for any of this sir stuff. My name's Ojiro, im not some old man."

He chuckled, Naruto lightly laughed along with the man. Tenten was glad that the blonde's nervousness was beginning to pass, truthfully her father was nothing but a big teddy bear.

"So Naruto-san, tell me about yourself. Ten-chan tells me you two have been together a year but didn't want to tell anyone to keep her safe."

Naruto glanced at Tenten who shrugged before he turned back to Ojiro. "Yeah, I didn't think people would like me having a girlfriend," Naruto said completely submitting to her story. Tenten beamed being called his girlfriend again, but couldn't help the annoyance that also filled her heart at not being called his wife.

"let's see..." Naruto trailed off while adopting a thinking pose. "I like ramen, I like to learn new things like jutsu and cooking. I just passed my genin exam today so im excited to find out what team I'll be placed on."

"You only just graduated?"

"Oh yeah, im a year behind Ten-chan but I have faith I'll catch up," Naruto exclaimed. Ojiro nodded, he had to admit he was worried that the blonde was too young but if it's just a year it's no big deal. Naruto sighed with relief when Ojiro got up saying the dinner was ready, Tenten smiled at her 'boyfriend' and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

-break

Naruto sighed when he woke the next morning in his old bed, in his old apartment and not beside his wife in their lovely home. 'Soon Naruto, soon.'

Today was the day of his team placements and if all goes according to history he should be placed with both Sakura and Sasuke. The thought of dealing with those two again caused him to shudder, the only solace was that once Sasuke tries to defect the village Naruto can put an end to him. At that point, he would be a missing-nin or at least should be if the stupid civilian council keeps their nose's out of it.

After eating a full breakfast and tieing his headband around his forearm hr left for the academy. In his last life, he wore his headband tied around his head where it belonged, however, Tenten seemed to like his hair being let down. His hair was short and spiky and definitely not how he preferred it to be, but that can be fixed in time. He preferred for his hair to be a bit longer, like his fathers."

Entering the room Naruto was greeted with the sight of both the pinkette and the platinum blonde fangirls arguing in front of the door. Again over something as trivial as Sasuke Uchiha.

"Get the hell out the way," Naruto growled allowing a bit of Kyuubi's chakra to seep out of him. The girls turned wide-eyed to see who the voice belonged to, only to see it belonged to Naruto.

Ino saw the deep scowl that played across her fellow blonde's face and decided to grant his request and get out of his way. Sakura, on the other hand, did not, "What the hell Naruto-baka. Who do you think your talking too."

Sakura reared back for a punch, Ino's eyes widened. Was she really going to hit him, they were the ones in the wrong they shouldn't have been arguing in the doorway, to begin with. She released a breath she didn't even know she was holding when instead of taking the punch and being sent flying into the adjacent wall Naruto caught the fist before jerking her sideways effectively knocking her off her feet, she hit the ground with a thud.

"I am in no mood for your bullshit, Haruno-san," the venom in his words was practically palpable. The class stared wide-eyed at the so-called dead last, one thought bounced around the girl's minds. 'He didn't call me Sakura-chan.'

"Alright everyone, that's enough," everyone glanced from Naruto to the origin of the voice, directly behind the blonde genin was Iruka Umino. Naruto went and took a seat next to Shikamaru Nara as Sakura sat next to her Sasuke-kun.

The blonde's jinchiriki narrowed his eyes once he saw the Uchiha, his time will come. All Naruto had to do was bide his time, his future will not come to pass.

"Alright everyone, I would like to congratulate you all for graduating. From this day onward you are shinobi of Konohagakure, be sure to represent the village well."

"Now onto team placements. . . Team 1," Naruto couldn't care enough to listen, all he needed was to be placed on a team with Sasuke, considering the bastard was rookie of the year it shouldn't be too hard to be placed with him. After all, Naruto was supposed to be the dead last.

"Team 7 will be Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno," a loud groan could be heard from both Naruto and Sakura. "and Sasuke Uchiha," Sakura triumphantly raised both fist's into the air while yelling something about true love, Naruto sighed he hated that history was repeating itself. "Your jonin sensei will be Kakashi Hatake."

Iruka read through the other two teams that made up the rookie 9. They mattered very little in the grand scheme of things, sure they each played a roll in his life but neither of them played a roll in creating the future Naruto was determined to prevent.

Waiting for their sensei was. . . just as boring as the young Uzumaki remembered 2 hours. . . 2 whole hours of Sakura trying to get Sasuke's attention. Luckily Naruto decided it best to sit at the far side of the room, away from the two.

The door slid open and a head entered the room, the silver-haired jonin Kakashi Hatake stood looking at his new team. Sasuke was currently glaring at Kakashi for being late and waisting the Uchiha's valuable time while Sakura was screaming about how he was late and how unprofessional it was. Surprisingly to him, the one not saying for doing anything was Konoha's resident hyperactive knucklehead ninja Naruto Uzumaki. Kakashi stared at the blonde, 'He's starting to look like his father."

"You're late!"

"My first opinion. . . I dont much like you," Kakashi said flatly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Meet me on the roof," he said before disappearing into smoke.

Sakura sighed before turning towards Sasuke. "Let's go Sasuke-kun."

"hn"

Sakura turned to Naruto to find where he was sitting was know vacant. 'Where did he go?'

When Kakashi reappeared on the roof of the academy started hearing footsteps. It couldn't be his team, could it? He leaned over the edge and was surprised to see the blonde haired loud mouth of his team walking up the wall of the building.

"So I see you already know wall walking."

Naruto climbed over the side of the wall and sat down on one of the steps. "Ya, Jiji-chan gave me some scroll's to help me with basics," which wasn't completely a lie. The forbidden scroll had much information in it but the Hokage didn't necessarily give it to him.

Kakashi nodded in understanding before the other two finally made their way to the roof. "Dobe, how did you get up here."

"The window."

"Alright, you three," Kakashi said, interrupting Sasuke as he was about to say more. "Let's start with introductions. . . Ya know to learn about each other."

"How about you go first sensei, just to show us how it goes," Sakura said meekly.

"Well alright. my names Kakashi Hatake, I don't particularly like much or dislike things. My hobbies are... too old for you three and my dream is. . . I dont have one, see easy. You first pinky."

"My name is Sakura Haruno, my like's are," looks at Sasuke and giggles. "My hobbies are," glances at Sasuke, "as for my dream," still looking at Sasuke. "And I hate Ino-pig and Naruto-baka."

Kakashi sweatdropped, 'great a fangirl."

"You next Mr. Whisker's."

Naruto glared at Kakashi for the Mr. Whiskers remark. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My likes are Ojiro-tou-san, Ten-chan, training and learning new things. My dislikes are people that hate a person without even knowing the person, I also dislike fangirls, arrogant people and people who dont take things seriously. My hobbies are spending time with Ten-chan and training and my dream is to become Hokage."

Sakura and Sasuke arch their collective eye brow's when Naruto mentioned Ojiro and Tenten. Kakashi almost looked surprised, 'Tenten? Isn't she on Gai's team, how does he know her.'

"You next broody."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I dont particularly like anything and I dislike a lot of things. My dream isn't a dream but more like an ambition because I will make it a reality. I will kill a certain someone."

The blonde and silver headed ninja sweatdropped.

'Sasuke-Kun's so cool,' Sakura thought to herself as she stared longingly at her crush. Naruto felt sick, he hates how consumed the boy was with hate.

"Alright... you're all different. I want you three to meet me at training ground 7 at 6 a.m. sharp," Kakashi said before turning around.

"Oh, and umm... you might not want to eat anything for breakfast. Tomorrow will be your real genin exam."

"Wait, sensei what do you mean. We already passed the genin exam?"

"Oh, that well... that was only to weed out the weak, tomorrow your real test start's. It has a 66% fail rate so... get some rest," Kakashi said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"So. . . Sasuke-kun."

'here it comes,' Naruto thought, he looked at her through narrowed eyes trying to give her some sort of hint but alas it had no effect.

"Do you want to go do something later?"

"No," Sasuke shot her down without a moment's hesitation, even Naruto felt bad for the pinkette. Sakura's demeanor changed and she became quiet. Sasuke left towards the Uchiha compound.

Naruto sighed having decided to try and help her, perhaps this will do it. Perhaps if Sasuke had someone left in the village he wouldn't betray them.

"Look Sakura-san," Naruto begrudgingly said. Sakura turned towards the boy angry at first. She figures he would try and ask her out like he always did after Sasuke turned her down. However, her anger subsided when she realized that he didn't call her Sakura-chan.

"Sasuke-teme will never date you as you are. He prefers strong women, you may not want to hear this but you dont really take your training seriously."

"What do you suggest I do, I love him but when I train too hard I pass out?"

Naruto turned to the pinkette and placed a hand on her shoulder, "I suggest you stop dieting. The reason you pass out during training is that you burning calorie that you dont have."

"So if I stop dieting Sasuke will look at me," Sakura asked with pleading eyes.

"Im not saying that im saying it will help."

Sakura nodded, she would consider his words. "Say Naruto-san," the blonde in question turned and looked at her. "Why are you helping me, I thought you liked me?"

"Simple Sakura-san, I moved on. I found the love of my life and I couldn't be happier," he smiled before turning around and disappearing into a swirl of leaves.

Sakura stared dumbfounded at the spot of leave's where Naruto had just been. The advice about Sasuke was sound, it would even save her life on C-rank and above mission's but what was this about him finding his true love. She felt a small pang in her heart, she had always thought Naruto would pine after her affection's but now, to hear he moved on didn't quite sit right with her.

-break-

4k word everybody, I feel like that's quite a lot. Isn't that like the number of words of a chapter in a novel or something? Anyway, Im loving this fic, I have big plans for this.

Unlike with my first fic Drunken Knightshade Marriage, I've given this one some serious thought. Not that I haven't given DKM though it's just I feel I've planned this one, DKM was more like the content for the chapters just came to me.

Anyway. W. J. Wenning out. 


	3. Chapter 3

Naruto arrived late to his team meeting the next day, or at least late as far as his teammates were concerned. He was still early as far as their sensei was concerned, he wasn't even there and if the blonde remembered right wouldn't be for another 15 minutes. Sakura looked annoyed by the tardiness of her sensei, once Naruto arrived he got an ear full.

"You're late!"

"Yeah," Naruto answered in an almost bored tone. "You'll learn Kakashi-sensei's late a lot."

Sakura sighed in defeat. Sasuke grunted in annoyance. "Well, im glad to see you all made it."

The trio turned and saw Kakashi standing behind Naruto. The blonde seethed inwardly, it wasn't that he hated the jonin but he didn't particularly like how he acted especially toward the Uchiha.

"Alright, you three today well be doing your real genin exam," Kakashi started as he pulled two silver bell's from his kunai pouch. "In this test, you'll have to get one of these bells. In order to get a bell, however, you have to come at me with the intent to kill."

"But sensei, there are only two bell's but three of us?" Sakura questioned.

"That's right, which means the one who doesn't get a bell will be sent back to the academy."

Sakura gulped while Sasuke and Naruto just looked, board. "Begin," he said before the three genins jumped into the trees, Naruto cursed his luck. If he wanted to pass he would either have to trick Sasuke somehow into working with him or get tied to a stump. . . again. Convincing Sakura wouldn't be impossible, she seemed to take his advice about dieting but Sasuke was more likely to try and kill him.

Naruto sighed as he walked up to Sakura, "Psst. . . Sakura-san," the pinkette in question jumped slightly before turning around.

"Dont sneak up on me," she hissed. "What do you want?"

"Help."

Sakura was taken aback. Here was Konoha's most hyperactive knucklehead asking for help, had she died and traveled into an alternate dimension or something. "Why would you want my help?"

"Think about it Sakura-san we're freshly graduates genin's, we dont stand a chance against Kakashi-sensei. There's no way ONE of us can take on a jonin."

Sakura nodded, "Yeah you have a point."

"That's why I've been thinking. There has to be another reason behind this, I think he wants us to work together."

Sakura scowled, "Naruto-baka, there are only two bell's if we work together Sasuke-kun will be sent back to the academy."

"I dont think so, if we can convince him to work with us then there shouldn't be any penalty."

"But what if you're wrong?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched, he sighed. "If im wrong, then I'll give you and Sasuke-teme the bells."

Sakura nodded as the duo made their way in the direction Sasuke jumped off too. As they walked for what seemed like hours Naruto's eyes narrowed, years of training had made him pretty good at detecting genjutsu sure he may not have the talent to perform them due to his insanely high chakra reserve's but he knew when he was trapped in one. He had to be when fighting an Uchiha. Despite being amongst the smartest konoichi in their class Sakura still hadn't noticed that they had passed the same tree 3 times.

"S... Sak... ura, Naru... to," Sakura stopped in her track's before turning around so fast it surprised Naruto she hadn't given herself whiplash. The blonde sighed before turning around himself, what he saw was Sasuke laying on the ground bloodied and covered in kunai.

"H... help me," Sasuke managed to get out, his voice sounded pained. Sakura ran up to him while screaming his name, she bent down and sobbed into his bloodied back.

"Sakura-san! Sakura-san, calm down... it's just a genjutsu," Naruto said as he shook her before forming the ram seal and dispelling the Sasuke illusion. Up in a tree, Kakashi smiled underneath his mask.

"Come on, we still need to find the teme," Naruto said as he pulled his pink haired teammate to her feet. She nodded and the duo ran forward in hopes of finding the Uchiha.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura exclaimed before running up to him and throwing herself onto him in a passionate hug. Sasuke looked up with irritation in his eye's, Naruto took a glimpse at what Sasuke was doing and if he wasn't mistaken then the Uchiha seemed to be making a rough sketch of a battle plan.

"Sakura! Get off!"

Naruto winced at the ravenette's volume and pulled Sakura off him by the back of her collar. Sasuke stood and glared at the two dead weight's as he called them. "What the hell do you two want, can't you see im busy."

"We need you," Naruto stated which got both Sakura and Sasuke's attention. "We believe we figured out the real meaning behind this test."

"Real meaning? What are you talking about you couldn't figure your way out of a wet paper bag."

This insult angered Naruto, he could feel Kurama inside his cage wriggling around. "Look neither of us can go up against Kakashi-sensei, were freshly graduated genin against a jonin. Our best chance against him is to work together."

To Naruto's surprise, Sasuke seemed to ponder this for a moment before the familiar Uchiha arrogance took over for rational thought. "I dont need you. Im an Uchiha, an elite while your just a no named idiot with no clan," he spat before turning to Sakura, "and your just a talentless fangirl from a civilian family."

"Sasuke-teme we need."

"No, Im going to get those bell's by myself and show you the difference between you and me," Sasuke said before turning and storming off. Naruto sighed, why kami why was it so hard for the Uchiha to understand that you cant go it alone. Even with the 'almighty' Sharingan, he was blind.

"So. . . what about you Sakura-san," Naruto stated. "Sasuke-teme's not going to work with us... so what will you do?"

Sakura looked from Naruto to the direction her beloved Sasuke walked off too. She turned back to the blonde, "I think your right Naruto-ba, I mean Naruto-san. We can't take Kakashi-sensei alone, he's too powerful."

For the second time in 5 minute's, he was speechless. He had believed she would scoff at him and tell him off but instead, she accepted the fact she couldn't do it alone and accepted his help.

Naruto smiled, "Thanks for not blowing me off, I truly believe that teamwork is what's best here."

Kakashi stood in the center of the clearing reading the latest issue of Icha Icha Paradise. He was just getting to the good part where the main character imigi and his student Hebi had just finished their interrogation of the latest criminal that was brought in. Hebi had been shooting her sensei/ secret lover lustfull looks all chapter and on their way from the interrogation room, she tackled Imigi with a passionate kiss before dragging him into a broom closet. It annoyed Kakashi to no end that he was interrupted when Sasuke jumped out of a bush and attacked him. The Uchiha went for a lower-body jab which was easily countered before he lept and kicked downward, his left was blocked by Kakashi's arm. Sasuke made a 'tsk' noise punching at the jonin's right side, Kakashi blocked it with his right hand.

Though this attack was just to distract the jonin as Sasuke's other hand went for the bell's. In the bush's Sakura's eyes bulged as Sasuke's finger tipped the bell before he was pushed off of Kakashi. 'Damn, this kid's good.'

Sasuke turned his body in mid-air and started to weave through a few hand signs. Kakashi's eyes widened, 'genin shouldn't be able to use fire style jutsu, it takes way too much chakra.'

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu," Sasuke muttered as he blew a giant fireball from his mouth. It engulfed the area around Kakashi, Sasuke smirked as he landed, 'No way he got out of that.'

Once the fire dispersed Sasuke's smirk disappeared when he saw the jonin was in fact missing. Sasuke took a step forward which proved to be a mistake as he was then pulled into the earth under him.

"Earth Style: Headhunter jutsu," the voice of Kakashi said from behind him. Sasuke seethed with anger, how could he an elite be defeated by anyone.

* * *

Kakashi was standing alone in a clearing reading the latest issue of icha icha and giggling like a school girl when he felt the presence of his most knuckleheaded genin. Peering over the book the jonin eyed Naruto with annoyance, he had just gotten to the best part of the story too.

"You know, a head-on attack like this won't work on me," the jonin said as he dog eared his page and placed the book back into his kunai pouch. Naruto didn't say anything, instead opted to attack, pushing off with his right foot the blonde sped towards the jonin, Kakashi was surprised that the so-called dead last was so fast.

Naruto went for an abdominal punch but Kakashi sidestepped it, the blonde lept into the air and attacked with a knee but Kakashi blocked it with a hand. The blonde channeled some chakra into the knee and stuck to the jonin's hand, Kakashi was impressed that the boy knew how to channel chakra so well. 'Is this really the dead last?'

Using the momentum from his attack Naruto used his knee as a pivot and sent a roundhouse kick at the man's head but was blocked by his other arm, Naruto smirked as he stuck to the other arm. His body fell down and his hand tipped the bell's before Kakashi lept backward. 'Damn, he almost had me.'

Naruto cursed under his breath before vanishing and reappearing in front of Kakashi. The jonin's eyes widened in shock. 'How did he?'

That question would be better asked later when he wasn't in range of Naruto's taijutsu. The blonde sent a palm strike into Kakashi's chest, the jonin retreated backward. The jinchiriki smirked, Kakashi had fallen right into his trap for he lept right into the waiting arms of Sakura.

The pinkette reached towards the bell's and.

***Beep* *Beep***

"No!" Kakashi turned and was surprised to see Sakura in the motion to swipe the bells. 'How did I not sense her?'

Kakashi eyed the duo suspiciously. Something clearly wasn't right with Naruto, every document in the boy's file said he was a loud-mouthed brat who couldn't even perform a simple clone jutsu. but this Naruto is different. He seemed calm, relaxed and calculated. Sure his file said the boy tended to hide behind his emotions but this is too much.

Once Sasuke had joined them Kakashi sighed. "Look's like you three fail, pity."

"But sensei!" Sakura exclaimed but was interrupted when Kakashi held up a hand.

"But since Naruto and Sakura seemed to have gotten it, ill give you a second chance."

"What do you mean they get it, how could the banshee and the dead last get anything," Sasuke said, the arrogance in his voice was almost palpable. Sakura visible shrunk as he crushes insulted her.

"Well, Sasuke ill tell you," Kakashi stated. "You see the true purpose of this test was teamwork, something Naruto understood. You see as a team you will be expected to work together because if you dont have teamwork on a mission, your going to die."

Sasuke scoffed while Sakura silently thanked Naruto for bringing up the concept of teamwork. The blonde, on the other hand, was silently cursing himself for getting carried away and using the Hiraishin, he wasn't supposed to know that jutsu until after the war. It was even worse since him being Minato's son was not common knowledge yet.

Kakashi eyed the blonde with suspicion, not only because he did not act as the reports said but because of the jutsu he used. The jonin decided it would be better to get the boy alone and have a meeting with the Hokage.

A few moments passed and the blonde and pinkette were not happy. "Why are we being tied to a pole," Naruto mused Sakura nodded in agreement.

Kakashi merely ignored them and walked over towards a black stone. "Do you all see this, this is a memorial stone for ninja who died in battle. Hero's the lot of them."

"On this stone are the names of more than one of my friends, one of them my best friend," Kakashi said while staring down at the name, Naruto looked over towards the man his eyes filled with sadness. "He used to say that a ninja that abandons a mission is scum but a ninja who abandons their comrades are worse than scum. You ask why your being tied up, well its because you asked Sasuke for help but after one failure you gave up."

"...So Sasuke and I will be eating these two lunch's in front of you as punishment." Sakura groaned as she saw the avenger start to dig into the bento, Naruto had an everlasting confused expression on his face. 'This didn't happen before?'

"Sasuke," Kakashi said which got the Uchiha's attention. "I have important business to attend too... so you can have my bento, but do not feed them," he pointed to Sakura and Naruto before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Sasuke shrugged and continued to eat if Kakashi didn't want to eat that's fine by him. It only means when the second chance roles around that he'll be more unprepared. Sasuke lowered his chopsticks as he heard the stomach of Sakura growl, he glanced between her and the second bento. If he let his teammates go hungry and eat the second box then he would have double the energy when they have their second chance.

But then on the other hand, if he didn't share the second box his teammates would only slow him down. Not to mention that Kakashi had just finished talking about how the test was about teamwork. The Uchiha swallowed the rice in his mouth before moving onto the second box, he opened it and sighed knowing what he was about to do could possibly keep him from passing if he would be wrong.

"Here," Sasuke said. "If you two dont eat you'll only slow me down," Sakura had stars in her eyes as she believed that this gesture was Sasuke finally falling for her. Naruto sweatdropped as he heard what the ravenette said, sure he's doing this for himself but it would greatly benefit the team.

"Sasuke!" the three paused and looked back, Kakashi stood there with what could only be described as a one eye scowl. "What do I tell you!"

"Not to feed them."

"And why are you feeding them?!"

Sasuke scowled and stood up. "You said that we are a team if I didn't feed them they would only be a hindrance."

"That's right," Sakura exclaimed. "We are one!"

Naruto chuckled lightly as he smirked smugly at their sensei. "You are one, huh?" the three nodded, "Well then I only have one thing to say to that. . . you pass." If she wasn't tied to a post, Sakura would have crumpled to the ground, if the look on her face was any indication, Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief he didn't even know he was holding.

"Meet back here tomorrow morning at 8," Kakashi stated as he went to untie Sakura. Naruto eyed the jonin, "You two are free to go... Naruto a word if you please."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and walked into the direction of the Uchiha compound, Sakura shot a worried glance toward the blonde but walked off after receiving a nod from Naruto. He eyed the man as he went to untie him, he cursed himself for exposing himself as he had.

"You wanna tell me how you could use the Hiraishin?" Naruto sighed and placed a hand on the back of his neck. 'Yup got carried away.'

"Sure but can we go to the Hokage tower, I dont want to explain this twice," Naruto said, expertly avoiding the topic. He needed time to come up with something, anything that could be believable. The two walked through the streets of Konoha together, Naruto ignored the looks he received from everyone, but Kakashi seemed to snarl at the civilians.

With a heavy sigh Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage stamped the last of his paperwork for the day. It was hard enough keeping Naruto safe and keeping the council off his back long enough for him to graduate but adding the bane of every kage's existence to the mix was just torture. Why did Kami hate him?

Just when he thought he was done with the nightmare his successor Minato Namikaze up and dies. Which left the position open which if left unfixed then the other nations would see it as a sign of weakness and attack them. Which left them with two options, one being Hiruzen to retake the position and two being that Danzo, Hiruzens friend, and rival, take the position. There was no way that was going to happen, Danzo was an old Warhawk who believed that the best way to peace was to crush your enemy's. That's why he created his organization called the Root, he trained them to be emotionless warriors that would infiltrate enemy villages and feed information back to him. Hiruzen suspected that the organization was still up and running even though the elderly Kage ordered the Warhawk to shut it down years ago.

Hiruzen sighed again as he placed the paper onto the neatly stacked pile of that was his finished paperwork. Suddenly there was a gust of wind and a swirl of leaves at swept up the papers and spread them around the room, Hiruzen wanted to cry.

"Hokage-sama."

The old man turned to see his surrogate grandson and his new sensei standing before him. "What is it Kakashi, the meeting to discuss team placement isn't for another hour?"

"My apologies Hokage-sama but I have questions that very much need answer's?"

"What kinda questions?"

"I can answer that Jiji," Naruto chirped as he walked over to the Hokage's desk. "During my team's final teat, I kinda got carried away and did something I shouldn't have."

Hiruzen sat up, he was slightly scared. If this was important enough for them to bring it to his attention then it has to have something to do with the fox. "What did you do?"

"He used a jutsu that no one should know. . . the Hiraishin," the Kage stared shocked at Kakashi, the old man's eyes drifted to Naruto who adopted a sheepish expression.

"Naruto-kun, how is it that you used that jutsu," Hiruzen asked. Naruto gulped, here it is, make or break time. Kami how Naruto wished Kurama would wake up and speak, he was always better at coming up with lies.

"I... uh kinda learned it from," that's when a light bulb went off in the blonde's head. "I learned it from Tou-san," this earned the boy shocked expressions.

"How do you?"

Naruto adopted his sheepish expression again and started poking his index fingers together. "Well, you remember my ninth birthday," Hiruzen nodded. Naruto had to hide the shudder that went up his spine, it was a memory he remembered well and something he tried so very hard to forget. Kakashi and Hiruzen shuddered along with the boy, remember? How could they not, it was possibly the worst thing to ever happen to the boy. It had been his birthday and the villagers were participating in one of their favorite past times, the annual fox hunt. He had run as fast as his little legs could carry him but it was no use when a Chunin from the mob had thrown a Kunai with deadly accuracy and struck a young Naruto in the right thigh. The blonde screamed in pain as he fell, be tried to get back up to run... but the mob was already on top of him. Most of that night, up until the main event was lost to him because of time and many head trauma but he recalled the main event they had dragged a bloodied and beaten Naruto through the streets for the rest of the village adults to see, he had expected someone to step in and save him but alas no one came. They lifted him up and he felt a sharp agonizing pain in each hand, he looked up through swollen eyes to see both hands nailed to each side of a wooden cross, looking down he could see what looked like straw and villagers dumping some liquid onto it.

Naruto recognized the sent of the liquid, it was gasoline, they wanted to crucify him. He felt a hand forcefully grab at his spiky blonde hair and lift his head up so he was face to face with a man with violet eyes. The man smiled a savage smile as he held up a lit match, "This is for my Nii-san, you damn demon!" The man shouted him Naruto's face, he spits on him and drops the match.

Naruto watched as the flames started to grow, started to rise higher and higher until the tips of the inferno began to lick at the bottoms of his feet. At first, the pain was manageable, the real pain came when the flames started to lick at his legs. He screamed louder than he had ever screamed before as he could feel the skin on his legs begin to bubble and pop. He must have blacked out for a time before waking up long enough to see a silver-haired man carrying him bridal style as he rushed towards the hospital.

Needless to say, it hadn't been one of his fondest memory's.

"While I was unconscious I kinda woke up in my mindscape," this earned an arched eyebrow from both the jonin and Hokage. "It's like a world crafted by my imagination... anyway I woke up in what seemed like a sewer and in front of me was the fox's cage. He talked with me, and when I learned the real reason for him attacking the village I went to ripe the paper seal of the cage."

Kakashi seemed shocked that the young blonde seemed so willing to sacrifice his own life to free the demon, he was about to say something before Hiruzen spoke first, "What possessed you to try and free the beast that destroyed the village and killed your parents?"

Naruto adopted a thinking pose, "Well, I hated this village," this seemed to shock the Hokage and jonin. Hiruzen leaned back into his chair, "And after hearing Kurama's story I learned he was just as much a victim as I was."

"Who's Kurama?" Kakashi asked with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto made an 'Oh' face, "That's the Kyuubi's real name, he's actually a lot nicer than you would think."

Hiruzen sighed, "Well what did Kurama say to you?"

"He said that he never meant to attack the village," Naruto exclaimed gaining skeptical looks from both adults. "He was ripped out of Kaa-san after I was born, neither he or Tou-san knows who it was but it was an Uchiha who wore a mask, he used his Sharingan to control him. After hearing that I went to undo the seal, after all, it wasn't fair that he was sealed away for something that wasn't even his fault. That's when Tou-san appeared to me, apparently he sealed what was left of his chakra into the seal as a fail safe."

Hiruzen smirked and nodded, it was definitely something Minato would do, he always seemed to think of everything. "Very well I accept this answer," the aged Hokage said, "What other things have Minato-kun taught you."

"Other than the Hiraishin, he taught me the Rasengan," Naruto demonstrated by holding out a hand and allowing his chakra to flow out of his palm and form the familiar spiraling orb.

* * *

Naruto trudged through the streets of Konoha, he was mentally exhausted from having to come up with so many lies on the spot, how did Tenten do it? Mentally he was exhausted, Kurama was better at lying then he was if only he could contact the fox but something was keeping him from entering his mindscape. Walking up to his apartment door he noticed the door was unlocked, thankfully undamaged but it certainly was not unlocked when he left this morning. Cautiously the blonde pulled out a kunai and slowly opened the door, the first thing he noticed was the lack of clutter on his floor, sure he cleaned up the mess when he gained his future knowledge but he hadn't made it spotless. Now it was practically spotless.

Moving through the apartment the smell of something sweet caught his sense's. Turning the corner into the kitchen he struck a fighting pose before seeing Tenten standing in his kitchen with a tray of freshly baked brownies. "Where were you when I actually needed a knife."

"Ten-chan? What are you doing here?" Naruto stated Tenten held back a chuckle, he was too cute when he was confused.

"What? Can I not welcome my loving husband home after a long day of training," she stated while placing both hands on her hip and cocking them to the left.

"It's not like that, I was wondering how you got in?"

"Remember, you told me where you keep your spare key?" Naruto arched an eyebrow. The location of his spare house key was a secret that many didn't know about, right on the front of his apartment door he had carved a small nook underneath the plaque that said his room number, 435. It was not bigger than a key. He had told Tenten when they started dating where he kept the spare.

Naruto sighed before collapsing onto the sofa, it smells like lavender. "Ten-chan, did you clean all this by yourself?"

The girl rubbed the back of her head, "Kinda, I used a clone to help me. I've seen you do it more than enough time's."

Naruto chuckled from his place on the sofa, Tenten walked over and sat next to her husband. "So why did you come over anyway Ten-chan? Can't have been to clean my home"

She giggled lightly and leaned against his shoulder. "Well I figured that we could live together again, ya know as a married couple should."

"What about Ojiro-san?"

To this, she just shook her head. "Tou-san was upset at first but after promising to visit every day he allowed it. . . under one condition no grandchildren yet."

Naruto could feel his face grow pale, he chuckled. The man was exactly the same as he was when he was older, well except for appearance. He always did try to keep the two from having kids, for what reason Naruto will never know when asked Ojiro always answered: "A grandfathers an old man, I dont feel old." Ojiro would be Ojiro no matter what time period they were in.

* * *

**Done, finally done. I hope you all enjoyed this because it took me a while, in my last chapter I recieved a review saying that Naruto was a bit OOC. Well while I would normally agree with you I must disagree in this case, you see if I was writing younger Naruto he would be a bit louder and concerned with Sakura even if she wasn't the main love interest of the story. However, this is adult Naruto's mind in younger Naruto's body, so he's a bit more mature.**

**While we're talking about adult Naruto, can we all agree that Boruto was complete and utter dog dookie? I mean Boruto is a spoiled brat that's completely unrelatable and they made Naruto a complete neglectful father. Sure I understand him not knowing how to be a father and fumbling through it but not neglecting his children and wife, he would know better than that.**

**I recieved another review on... I believe it was my first chapter saying that Naruto would indeed retain the knowledge of knowing how to perform the jutsu he knew in the future but not have the control or physical strength to perform most of them. The reviewer figured he would at most be able to perform a basic Rasengan, I believe that as well but I also allowed him to use the Hiraishin. From what I know the Hiraishin is simply fuinjutsu, which Naruto would retain the information of. I kinda just wanted the excuse to make Naruto a badass in his younger years without nailing Kakashi with a Rasengan, basic or not those things hurt. Did you see Jiraiya nail that guy when he and Naruto went to retrieve Tsunade?**

**Anyway small rant over. Chapter 3 ready, and I hope to be done with Chapter 4 soon, recently I have been keeping my chapters around the 5000 mark. As of right now Chapter 4 has 1000 so I have more work to do. I 've been kinda distracted lately because I took up the hobby of forging, it's a great way to work out any frustrations and take a break after a long day of either writing, my day job or gaming. Ton's of fun, speaking of forging I owe my inspiration to the youtuber and blacksmith Alec Steele. Go check him out.**

**Also before I go, last thing promise. I have a twitter where I will be sharing like art that I've made, the knife that im making and possibly looking for new idea's for new fics. Just look up W. My picture is of Jaune x Neo, one of my favorite and most underrated pairings.**


	4. Chapter 4

Tenten was many things smart, beautiful, fierce when needed and kind when the situation called for it but above all, she was a wife and she took her role as a wife seriously, some would say more serious than anything. But who could blame her for being a supportive wife, she was after all married to the most wonderful man in all the elemental nations, or at least he was when it came to her.

Sure Naruto had his fault's but everyone does, like how he would leave the toilet seat up when they lived together in the house they would one day own, or how he always put other's first even if it hurt him in some way. She lay in the bed she and her husband had shared the night previous, and much to her chagrin nothing untoward happened sure they cuddled but that wasn't the only thing she wanted. She was his wife, in the future they hadn't been lucky enough to have a child before everything went to hell but now they could change that but he was against them starting their family so early. Yeah, she understood why but it made her slightly angry.

She rolled under the cover's to look at the man she had just slept next to only to frown with worry. Naruto didn't look like he was sleeping well, in fact, it looked as if he was having some nightmare, she snuggled closer to him buried her face into his exposed chest. She understood why he was having a nightmare all too well, she had her fair share since she got back. Having to watch the love of her life die over and over again was terrifying, she could only imagine how much more petrifying it was for him considering he was the one who died.

"Naruto-kun," she said as she squeezed in tight enough to rousing the boy from his slumber, to which he was thankful. He looked down at her through drowsy eyes as she snuggled into him, he smiled and placed a kiss on top of her head. She looked up at him and smiled.

"Its ok hime, just a dream," he whispered as he placed an arm around her supportively as she placed a hand on his chest, she smiled as she felt the telltale sensation of his pectorals. Naruto's body was beginning to resemble his future self a bit with each day that passed thanks to the extra training he's been putting himself through to get his body in top physical condition.

"So what's the plan for today."

Naruto hummed for a moment as he though on his plans for the day. "More D-rank mission's, Im starting to remember why I hated those." Tenten chuckled at her husband's misfortune, she and her team have long since stopped having to do the chores the villager's felt they were too good to do themselves.

"Alright love, time to get up," Naruto said as he shifted his weight to get out of bed, though Tenten wasn't having this as she channeled chakra into the lower half of her body that was still sitting in bed to cling to it. She wanted to spend as much time with him as possible this morning and wasn't about to let him go, he was a wonderful source of heat. "Come on hime, I have missions in three hour's."

"I dont care," Naruto sighed and moved to lay back down, Tenten smiled because this was another argument she won. He smiled down at her and started to run his hand through her long brown hair that was uncontained by her hair bands, she loved the feeling of having him play with her hair.

Naruto frowned slightly as he remembered their purpose for being in this time, while it was nice to spend these mornings together it still didn't stop him from worrying. "I dont know what to do, Ten-chan," this got her attention as she lifted her head from his chest, she looked at him with confusion. "This whole mess with the Uchiha, I dont know what to do."

Tenten rolled her eye's had swung herself out of bed, "Well that ruined the mood," she mutter.

"What do you mean?"

She narrowed her eyes at the man before her. "Naruto-kun can't we just have a nice morning together without worrying about the mission," she pouted. Was it too much to ask that she come first to him, yeah the mission to stop Sasuke from leaving was important but it wasn't the most important thing, or at least it wasn't in her mind?

It boggled Naruto's mind that she could say that, he would love nothing more than to spend a quiet morning with her and do things a husband and wife should but they didn't have that luxury of time to waste time with the mundane. He sighed, "Ten-chan as much as I want to give you my undivided attention, unfortunately, we dont have that option. I leave for Wave tomorrow, then come's the chunnin exams and Im still not convinced Sasuke-teme will willingly stay."

She nodded, "I understand that but it's like the missions all you think about, cant today just be about us," she said as she threw on a shit. Naruto hung his head, perhaps he had let the mission consume more of his time than he should have, at this rate, it would become a detriment to their relationship.

He sighed, "Your right," Tenten smirked and muttered that she was always right, Naruto decided to ignore it. "I let this mission overshadow what matters," there was a pregnant pause before he continued, "Im just scared is all."

"Scared? Naruto-kun you're doing all you can do if that's not enough then he'll need to be killed."

"I agree but what Hokage will I be if I dont give it my best shot."

She was starting to get annoyed, she knew she shouldn't because it was a very real concern but they still had a month and a half to figure things out. Granted that's not much time in the grand scheme of things but there was no need to rush. "The Hokage isn't perfect you idiot," she hated calling him that, even if he acted like it sometime's, " Kakashi-san was a pervert, Tsunade-san was an alcoholic with a gambling problem, Minato-san lost not one but two of his genin, Sarutobi-sama gave too much power to the council, Tobirama-sama was emotionless and im sure Hashirama-sama had more than his fair share of faults." Naruto had to give it to her, no Hokage was perfect.

"Yeah, yeah your right... you're always right," Naruto admitted, just because he was strong didn't mean he could save everyone. Tenten smirked triumphantly, "Dont you ever get tired of being right?"

"Nope," she chirped as she took a seat on the bed next to Naruto, she leaned her head onto his shoulder. "Beside's you're cute when you pout."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Im still going to give it my best shot, I won't have people saying I gave up." Tenten huffed lightly and lightly smacked his chest.

"No one says you should give up, im just saying you dont have to be all business all the time. I have needs Naruto-kun and one of those is my husband," Naruto nodded and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

Naruto stood up from the bed, much to his wife's chagrin and went over to the closet and started pulling out clothe's. Tenten watched as he dressed in a pair of black anbu pants and a navy blue shirt with an orange anbu caption tattoo emblazoned on his chest in orange. She chuckled slightly, somethings will never change one being Naruto's love for his friends and two is favorite color being orange.

"What are you getting dressed for," she asked.

Naruto's head popped out from the neck hole of the shirt and he turned back to his beloved. "As much as I would love to spend the rest of the day in bed worshipping you like the goddess you are, I have my daily missions." Tenten pouted as she knew she could not convince him to stay in bed with her, Naruto noticed this, "Come on Ten-chan, no need to pout. Look after I get home well go on a date."

-break-

Naruto scowled as he plucked another weed from the garden of a rather pudgy woman from the civilian council, he hated D-ranked missions. They were little more than chore's that the people of Konoha were too lazy to do themselves his thoughts on the lowest rank of missions the village had to offer hadn't changed since his younger years, even after becoming Hokage. The first time around due to his lack of knowledge on gardening and plant's, in general, caused him to mistakenly pluck not just weeds but also plants that could have bore fruit, not even being the son of the Fourth Hokage could save him from having to replant new vegetable seed's as punishment for destroying the pudgy woman's garden. Now however was different, he knew what not to do thanks to his future friendship with Ino Yamanaka.

He winced as he felt the tell-tale pain of a blister forming on his palm, he sighed and cursed under his breath. He hated that feeling, that feeling of having soft skin again, it was almost depressing how weak he was now compared to how he once was... in the future, time travel is confusing. He wasn't the 26-year-old Hokage that he was, now he's a 13-year-old genin again with poor chakra control and less than developed muscle mass. One thing was for sure he would have to train long and hard later on in the day, the only thing that pulling weeds is good for was slowly increasing his physical strength. Luckily even though his body is that of a 13-year-old boy his mind is that of a 26-year-old man, channeling a bit of chakra to his hand Naruto smiled as he felt the soft pain in his hands subside as the chakra protected his hand.

There was another thing about being 13 again, his control was completely shot which meant no advanced Rasengan's, no sage mode, no elemental manipulation hell he couldn't even perform the summoning jutsu because he hadn't yet signed the toad summoning contract.

Looking over he saw that his fellow genin, Sasuke and Sakura were not fairing much better, it was slight but Naruto could see the fatigue and pain pass over the Uchiha's face. The blonde smiled slightly as he noticed the boys discomfort. The pinkette would rip her hand away from the weeds every once in a while and shake her hand violently, obviously, the pain of the blisters was getting to her. The blonde sighed as he looked at the girl with concern, sure he would never have the relationship he had once had with the pinkette but he would be lying if he said that the two of them hadn't somehow become friends after all the sparing and training they've done together.

Since she had started taking her training more serious he felt it necessary since it was his idea for keeping Sasuke in the village that he would oversee her training personally. Sakura wiped her forehead and glanced over to her teammate's and sighed, Naruto and Sasuke had piles of weeds that could be compared to small dogs while her own was the size of a coffee mug. Naruto saw the look on his friends face.

"Cheer up Sakura-san," Naruto said as he scooted closer to her and patted her on the shoulder. He leaned in and whispered to her, "Apply a little chakra to your palms, it'll ease the pain and strengthen the skin." The pinkette glanced up at him and nodded, doing as instructed she channeled her chakra into her hands and surprisingly could feel the pain in them ease, she smiled.

"Thanks, Naruto-san."

Sasuke arched an eyebrow at the two before huffing and going back to work. Naruto sighed, that was part of history that hadn't changed, Sasuke was still an anti-social prick. If things kept up the way they are then eventually the ravenette will defect to join Orochimaru and eventually come to destroy Konoha, the blonde shook his head he couldn't let that happen... not again. He was the Hokage and as Hokage, he vowed to do anything in his power to protect his village and its citizen's. If worse come's to worse he'll be forced to kill the Uchiha before he manages to escape after the valley of the end.

Hours passed and the genin of team 7 finally finished there weeding mission and the three were staring daggers into the backside of their sensei Kakashi Hatake.

"I want to thank you again Kakashi-san if it wasn't for you that garden would never have been weeded. My back hasn't been in the best of shape these days," the woman said as she paid the Hokage for a successful mission.

"It was our pleaser ma'am," the silver-haired jonin said with an eye smile, the three genins glared hatred into the jonin's back. 'You didn't do anything, it was all us,' was the collective thought of the trio, walking out of the Hokage tower everyone was quite until Kakashi broke it.

"Alright, you three your free for the rest of the day, make sure to get some rest because we start again at 8 o'clock tomorrow," Kakashi said. Sakura sighed in relief as she was sore all over from the manual labor that they had done today, Naruto was thankful because he had time to shower and change before his date with Tenten and Sasuke because... well because he thought he had better things to do than to pick weeds from some old lady's garden. Sakura glanced at her companion and smiled softly as she thought of the blonde as somewhat of a friend even though their history would suggest differently, she looked away with eye's filled with sadness as she thought of all the time's she had hit or yelled at the young boy beside her.

"Naruto-san?"

The young jinchiriki glanced toward the pinkette, "Yes Sakura-san?" He arched an eyebrow as he saw the girl seemed to fidget nervously in place. Since they had started training together Sakura had changed her appearance somewhat she had kept her hair as long as it had always been but now were a one-piece dress was, now a two-piece top and skirt outfit with fishnet shirt underneath and a black belt holding up her skirt.

"I umm... im sorry," this caught Naruto by surprise, to his knowledge she hadn't done anything to offend him in any way. Sakura saw the confusion on his face, "Im sorry for alway's yelling at you and hitting you,"

Naruto made an 'oh' face before turning back to Sakura, despite their future problems he had started to care for the younger version of the girl. "Well thanks," he rubbed the back of his head, "Do you want to... I dont know train or something?"

"Naruto-kun how do you still have so much energy, im exhausted," Naruto's mind stopped as he heard her refer to him as -kun, he smiled slightly, perhaps a friendship with the pinkette wouldn't be so back. He dipped into his kunai pouch and pulled out a small brown pill and tossed it to Sakura.

"Eat that, it'll give you energy for about 5 hours."

She looked skeptically back at Naruto before plopping the brown ball into her mouth and bit down on it, at first she didn't feel any different but after 5 minute's she felt her entire body become energized. It was almost like every atom in her body became electrified and started vibrating, needless to say, she felt great she felt as if she could run a marathon around Konoha's outer gate. Naruto saw this and smiled.

"Now that you have the energy I have a technique that I would like to teach you," he said as they started walking to their team's training ground. "I can't stay long, I have a dinner date later but I will show you how it's done."

Once they arrived at training ground 7 he walked over towards a boulder that was about twice the size of himself. He turned towards Sakura and silently prayed that Tsunade wouldn't hate him if revealing the secrets of her strength, "Alright Sakura-chan," the pinkette blushed slightly as he heard him refer to her as -chan again. "Watch closely," he said as he started channeling chakra into his muscle's and fist, he turned toward the boulder and send a powerful fist into it before the boulder exploded. Sakura's eyes grew to the size of saucer's as she saw the once-mighty boulder become nothing more than rubble at the feet of Naruto.

"What on earth was that!" She exclaimed.

"That was Tsunade Senju's super strength technique, what you do is channel chakra into your muscle's and your fist, you release the chakra through your fingertips and then," he demonstrated again by sending a punch to the ground, too no one's surprise the ground splintered under his fist. "Now I want you to practice this until it becomes second nature for you."

-break-

Naruto sighed as he opened the door to his and Tenten's apartment, he noticed the destined sound of talking. Walking through the hallway from the door to the living room he smiled happily as he saw Tenten talking with her father, Ojiro. The man noticed his daughter's boyfriend enter the house and sent him a small smile, Tenten noticed this and turned and smiled as she saw the man of her dreams

"Naruto-kun welcome home, I didn't hear you come in."

Naruto smiled as he walked over towards the table that sat the father and daughter duo. "Yeah well im not in the business of slamming doors," Naruto said referring to how much the pair were talking.

"So Naruto-kun how was your missions for the day?" Ojiro said.

Naruto sighed as he took a seat next to his wife, he then proceeded to slump down into his chair. "Work. Seriously there just choir's that anyone could do."

Tenten chuckled slightly as she placed a hand on his under the table. "Maybe so but every job brings money into the village, and living together means that we need all the money we can get." Naruto blushed a little at the sincerity in her voice. As a genin, the first time around he learned of how D-rank missions help support the economy of the village and later in life as the Hokage he learned how vitally important those choirs were when developing your muscles as a genin.

"I know I know but seriously pulling weeds, walking dogs and grocery shopping? Our time could be better served training and preparing for higher-ranked missions."

"Well," Ojiro interjected. "What do you expect we're in peace times. It's not like we're training children to fight war's," he said with a wave of his hand, Tenten and Naruto glanced at each other. If only he knew that a large scale battle would be coming to Konoha's doorstep within the next few months, so much needed to happen before the start of the chunin exam's. While his attempts at making Sakura stronger had earned a positive reaction from the Uchiha but he still seemed aloof, much like the first time around Kakashi had given them little to no training.

"So Naruto-kun, how has your team been. Hope your making friends," Ojiro asked.

"Slowly yeah," Naruto said as he smiled, Tenten glanced at him with an arched eyebrow. "Sasuke-san is still a bit cold but he's lightening up, Sakura-chan and I have a steady friendship," he said with a smile.

Tenten turned toward him, "Sakura-chan hmm... wasn't that the pink-haired girl you had a crush on?" Naruto gulped silently. She gave him a cocky smile before crossing her arms over her chest. "I dont have to be jealous do I?"

Naruto put his hands up in mock surrender, "Of course, not Ten-chan. All im doing is helping with her training, she never took it seriously in the academy." Ojiro chuckled at the boy's antics, Tenten gave im a curt "mhmm."

After an hour of talking between the trio, it had gotten late. "Alright kiddo's," Ojiro said. "Its time for me to get on home," he said as he got up from the table. Naruto jumped up.

"Allow me to walk you out, Ojiro-san."

The elderly man nodded with a smile as Naruto escorted him to the door, as the door was swung open the cold night air entered the warm apartment. Ojiro turned and looked at the boy, he was proud that his daughter had looked past the hate the villager's had shown the boy. "Say Naruto-kun," he said gaining the blonde's attention. "Let me talk to you for a moment alone." Naruto gulped audibly but stepped outside anyway, it didn't matter how many time's he had talked with the man alone it always made him nervous.

"How do you feel about my daughter?"

Naruto let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, anyone could tell you how a conversation of this sort would make them nervous. One wrong step and you could be hated by your significant other's father for the duration of the relationship. Though Naruto didn't need to worry, he loved her will all his heart. "I love her."

Ojiro stared into the boy's cerulean blue orbs and failed to detect any form of falsity. He sighed and smiled, "Im glad, are you ready for this. You've taken a big step, and your still so young."

Naruto arched an eyebrow in confusion but he assumed that he was talking about how they were now living together. "I know sir, but I know I love her and she loves me."

"Yeah," he said as he looked up thoughtfully. "I've seen it in her eyes, she had the same expression ChiChi used to have."

Naruto went silent at that, he hadn't known ChiChi but from what future Ojiro had told him she was a lot like Tenten and he loved Tenten. The father waved his goodbye before walking off into the night, Naruto was confused because of the man's words but was happy none the less that he was accepting of his relationship with his daughter. Walking back inside he noticed Tenten sitting on the couch with her leg's on the couch, her brown hair that was previously tied into double buns was now unbound by her hair ties.

"So," she started, "did you and Tou-san have a good talk?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes suspiciously, she knew something about his little talk with her father. "Yea, he said something that odd too me."

"Hmm," she hummed. "What was that?"

"He said I took a big step and if I was ready for this. I know living together is huge but I dont know if I would describe it as a big step."

Tenten smiled lightly as he pucked up her legs and sat down before putting her legs in his lap. She looked over at him and felt her heart flutter, "Well I may... have told him you asked me to marry you," she said with a smile. The blonde's eyes widened in surprise, that was something he was not expecting. Sure he had ever intention of re-marrying her but it was still so soon, they were still young.

"Ten-chan were too young to get married."

"But Naru-kun," she pouted. "Where genin which means in the eyes of the village were adults."

Naruto nodded, "Yes that is true but the legal age for genin is 15."

Tenten huffed and crossed her arms over her chest before looking away from Naruto. The blonde looked at the lovely brunette as she pouted, "Well," he started. "It seems like a date's out of the question for tonight, it's pretty late."

She seemed to slouch down into the couch even further before her expression brightened and she leaped up from the couch. Naruto stared at her as she walked towards their shared bedroom, once she was standing in the doorway she removed her top making the blonde blush furiously as he saw her the back of her black bra. She turned her head and al he could see was her seductive smirk, sultry eyes and the crest of her left breast. "There's more than one way to worship me like a goddess."

She turned fully toward him and beckon him with a single finger as she backed into the room. Naruto gulped audibly, he had to admit that even though he wanted to wait until they were older than even he had needs, needs that could only be satisfied by the women he loved. "I've taken all I can and I can't take no more," he said as he walked into the room after his weapon mistress.

-break-

Oops sorry, no lemon for you. Part of me really wants to write a lemon now, but I shall not give in to the temptation, save that for the other story im writing. That may or may not ever see the light of day.

This chapter is kinda short at around 4000 words while I typically try to keep them around 5000, I felt like I covered all I wanted to cover in the amount of words I had.

I had a review that said that I should finish this fic, I assume that it was talking about how DKM is still uncomplete. Let me tell you all right now, the final chapter is in progress. I'll let you all in on the basic overview of the chapter, its a time skip to their final year at Beacon. Blake and Jaune had a daughter that's turning 3 in a few weeks and Jaune wants to have a real wedding with Blake.

There that's all you get, hopefully for those of you that really like Drunken Knightshade Marriage, that this satiate's your thirst. Next chapter will be the Tora mission and then the Wave mission, I have plans that may come as a bit of a surprise. I believe I hinted at Sasuke becoming a somewhat nicer person, I think Naruto said he was less aloof but still kinda standoff-ish.

I decided to teach Sakura the strength technique in order to impress Sasuke, I have plans for their relationship and by the end of the story those of you who like the pinkette might not like me so much. To that I say, SUCK IT, HATERS!


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto watched from behind a tree as the Daimyo wife's cat pranced about freely on the floor of the woods outside of Konoha. He groaned internally as he watched the four-legged menace roll around in the leave's without a care in the world, little did it know that it was being surrounded by 4 ninjas of the hidden leaf village. Above all else, Naruto hated retrieving the woman's cat, it was seemingly a weekly event.

A crackle came from his earpiece as the familiar voice of his sensei broke from its speaker. "Do we have eye's on the target?"

"This is whisker's, Yeah I see her."

"Canary here. she's about 10 meter's away from us."

"hn," could be heard from the speaker. "Avenger targets in my sight."

Naruto smirked at there codenames, Whisker's would definitely not have been his first choice, he would rather go by something cool like Maelstrom or something but there was a certain beauty in how simple their codenames where.

"Alright, team 7 apprehend the target on my signal."

"3..." Naruto shifted his foot ever so slightly that it would be easier from his to launch off it.

"2..." Sakura peered down at the cat that was rolling around under the tree she was using as a perch.

"1..." Sasuke readied a moderately sized net that he kept folded up in his kunai pouch. There was no way this cat was going to make a fool of the last Uchiha like it had done countless teams before him.

"**GO**" Kakashi shouted, Sasuke was the first to leap into action as he closed the distance between himself and the cat in mere moments, he tossed the net but alas fell short as the cat made a quick b-line for the denser part of the forest. Sakura rushed in and landed a foot away from the cat but even with her training, she was not matched for the witty cat as it dived through her legs and made a sharp left turn.

"Naruto-kun she's heading right for you," Sakura shouted. A blur could be seen in the top branches of the tree's as the cat ran, the cat leaped over a fallen log and landed in a small clearing. Naruto saw this and leaped onto the forest floor, he looked up at the cat as he felt the familiar Bijuu chakra of Kurama he looked at Tora through crimson eyes, the cat stared up at him as if it was paralyzed. The blonde smirked as he felt the chakra recede from his system, that was the first sign of Kurama that he felt since Tenten had given him back his future memories but it begged the question what kept him and why couldn't he access his mindscape. He shrugged it off before picking up the cat, it served him no purpose dwelling on it Kurama will come around in his own time. "Target captured," he said.

"Can you confirm that she has a red bow on her left ear?"

"Yeah... its Tora alright," the blonde said with a sigh. "Can we get a real mission now."

**_--**A Kunai in Time**\--**

Team 7 stood in the mission room watching helplessly as the wife of the fire Daimyo smothered the cat in her meaty arms. Sakura felt bad for the cat while Sasuke sneered at the feline as it had the air literally crushed out of its lungs, Naruto sighed as he saw the cat struggle in its owners grasp. He would be the first to admit that in his younger years he hated that cat but as he was being groomed to take the position of Hokage he became quite familiar with the Daimyo, his wife, and her cat. He became quite fond of that lazy fluffball, it reminded him of another fluffball that kept giving him a hard time.

"Alright team 7," the Hokage started, "You did a fine job. Now on too other matters, we have two more missions available painting council women Mebuki's fence or walking Elder Homura's dogs."

Naruto groaned loud enough to gain the attention of the other occupancy of the room. "Come on Hokage-Jiji, can we please get a better mission?"

Hiruzen looked at the boy and took a drag of his pipe. Iruka stared at the boy, "Naruto these missions are."

"Beneficial to the economy of the village," Naruto finished Iruka's statement for him. "I know Iruka-sensei but I believe the four of us can handle at most a C-rank mission."

"Come on Hokage-sama," Naruto said in a more serious tone. This took the group by surprise as it was commonly known that Naruto wasn't one for formality's, Hiruzen arched an eyebrow questioning the serious tone in the boy's voice. "Team 7 will never be able to show what it can really do by doing those lousy D-rank missions."

The group looked at the blonde as if he had grown a second head, Hiruzen took a quick puff of his pipe before removing it from his mouth and sitting up straight in his chair with his arms cupped in front of him. "Naruto-kun what do you mean by 'really' show what you can do," Hiruzen questioned.

Naruto walked over and placed a hand on Sakura's back where the muscles were beginning to form. "Between team meeting and mission Sakura-chan and I have been working on her Taijutsu, I mean I'm no Maito Gai but im confident that she can handle a simple escort or delivery mission," Sakura smiled at the amount of faith her newfound friend was placed in her, truth be told her Taijutsu had improved immensely since they started training. She was no longer fainting because she was no longer dieting and she was gaining muscle mass to boot, even her body was starting to fill out. Sure her breast's where still small but they have gone from nothing at all to a little bit of something, between her body filling out and her muscle's developing she had noticed Sasuke glancing in her direction more often.

Naruto pointed a finger at Sasuke, "And Sasuke's the rookie of the year," he said with a smile even though on the inside he wanted to vomit. Nothing in this world could make Naruto compliment the arrogant Uchiha but sometime's sacrifice's would have to be made. Sasuke smirked arrogantly as it seemed that even the blonde jinchiriki had learned his place at the feet of the mighty Uchiha. "Beside's we have Kakashi-sensei, he's stronger than any bandit we would come across," the copy-cat ninja's chest swelled with pride as he heard the praise he was receiving from the blonde.

"Idiot even if what you say is true, C-ranks are just too dangerous. Rookie genin should not be going on them," Iruka said in an attempt to reason with Naruto, however, the brunette academy teach forgot one crucial thing. No one can reason with Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei we're not team 8 or 10," Naruto stated in his Hokage voice, something he cultured from a year of doing public speeches. "Team 7 is by far the strongest physical team which would make us the assault team. Team 8 had Hinata-chan, Kiba-san, and Shino-san, those three specialize in tracking, Team 10 is the current Ino-Shika-Cho which specialize in trapping. Our real potential would be better shown in the field."

Hiruzen was surprised, he categorized each team correctly. Iruka stared slack-jawed at the blonde he saw as a brother while Kakashi arched an eyebrow in the boy's direction. "hmmm," the Hokage hummed as he turned his focus from Naruto to Kakashi. "What do you think Kakashi, are they ready?"

The silver-haired jonin nodded slowly, "Naruto is exactly right sir, Sakura had become stronger while training with Naruto. Both Sasuke and Naruto are possibly on the same level," he said which gained the ire of the last Uchiha. "I would have to say they are more than ready for a simple C-rank."

Hiruzen nodded before pushing a button on his desk. "Send him in," he said as he removed his hand from the intercom, he turned back towards team 7. "Naruto-kun, I would like to congratulate you on your deduction. Since Kakashi believes you three ready than I would like to give you all a C-rank mission."

Sasuke smirked while Sakura sighed and Naruto smiled wide, the doors swung open which gained the group's attention and a rather portly fisherman stepped through them. In came the portly man with ashen grey hair and matching beard he wore a dark grey shirt that was almost black with a white towel draped across his shoulder's, he had a sake bottle dangling from his left hand. "What are these the ninja that will be protecting me," the old man exclaimed.

"I asked for a ninja, not children, they look stupid especially the blonde one," the man said which gained Naruto's ire. He may not have anything against the man but Naruto was definitely not a fan of people calling him stupid or an idiot. The man tilted the sake bottle to his lips only to find the bittersweet liquid not funneling into his gullet. He opened his eyes and saw that the bottom half of the bottle had been severed, looking around panicked he saw two of the kids looking at the blonde and the blonde was staring daggers at him. Looking to his right he saw a kunai impaled in the wall, still dripping with sake.

"Naruto we're supposed to protect the client not kill 'em," Kakashi said with a sigh. 'This is going to be a long mission.'

Hiruzen shook his head, the client shuddered at the killer intent that radiated from the blonde. "M... my names Tazuna, im the master bridge builder from the land of waves."

Naruto smiled as he reminisced about his first trip to the Wave country, it was there that he met Inari. It was there his resolve to protect those precious to him was solidified, with his first meeting with Haku, it was where Zabuza and Haku were laid to rest. He had to fight back tears as he remembered the two once enemies turned friends who had sacrificed everything to fight for what they believed in and lost everything because of the greed of Gato.

Kakashi glanced from their client to his team. "Alright you three," he said gaining the attention of the young shinobi. "I want you to pack for a month's worth of travel. We'll meet at the main gates in 10 minutes, dont be late."

Naruto scoffed, "We should be telling you that," he said as he walked passed his sensei and Tazuna before closing the doors to the mission hall behind him. He smirked as he vanished in a flash of yellow before appearing back in the small apartment of his and his soon to be wife. If he was to be perfectly honest he was nervous that Tenten had told her father he had asked her to marry her, this time around he would have like to have done things right and asked the mans blessing, last time they had gotten married because last time it was a spur of the moment thing he just did. He was so overwhelmed with happiness that he couldn't contain it, he had been planning on asking her but he had put it off because he hadn't asked Ojiro. Once he looked over the crowd of people as they watch the blonde take his rightful place as Hokage he was overcome by a sense of pride, his speech was one he had spent more time working on more than any other he thanked Iruka, Kakashi, Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Tsunade for giving him the tools to succeed in his shinobi career. He thanked his friends for all the times they had his back when thing became hard. Naruto smiled fondly as he remembered the words that followed, "And above all else, I want to thank the love of my life, My girlfriend Tenten for standing by my side when life grew too much for me to bear alone," he turned his cerulean blue eyes towards the women and smiled lovingly as he beckoned her forward. Tenten reluctantly stepped up and in front of the crowd that consisted of everyone that she had fought beside and for. Naruto took her hand in his as he got down on one knee, there was an audible gasp that spread throughout the crowd the weapon mistress cupped one hand over her mouth as Naruto pulled a small box from his pocket. "Will you marry me."

The words rang within young Naruto's mind as he walked through the apartment, he turned the corner of the hall into the living room and saw what might have been the most angelic sight he had ever seen. Laying there before him, was his beloved wife-to-be curled up on the couch asleep, he smiled as he walked over and scooped up the unconscious girl in his arms bridal style and walked her into the bedroom before laying her down and collecting the things he would need for the trip. He grabbed three outfits some underwear and socks before throwing them in a backpack and making his way out of the room as quietly as possible as to not wake the sleeping girl. Moving onward to the kitchen he threw a few cups of instant ramen in his bag, normally Tenten would yell at him packing the cups because they were not very good for a shinobi in training but it was the most readily available meal he had, he only packed three anything else he needed he could hunt for. Walking out of the kitchen Naruto went over towards a chest he kept next to the couch, in it was where he kept his stash of ninja tools. He grabbed an extra 40 that, when added with the 10 he kept on his person equaled out to be 50, he stuffed 30 explosive tag's into a pocket on his backpack and another 5 into his kunai pouch and finally the tool that help immensely when they faced off against Zabuza, 1 windmill shuriken.

"Naruto-kun," came the tired voice of his weapon goddess. He turned around and saw her standing in the doorway, "Whatcha doin?"

He smiled, "Just getting my things together, I have 8 minutes left to get to the main gates for the mission to Wave country." Tenten nodded before walking over and sinking down to his level and throwing her arms around him. She stared into his deep cerulean pools and he in returns staired into her rich earthen eyes before closing the distance between them in one searing kiss.

She pulled away, "Im going to miss you," she said softly as she rested her forehead on his. Naruto smiled before moving in for another quick kiss.

"Dont say that with your mission's and team training the month will fly by," he paused and looked at the girl, she was pouting and giving him her signature Tenten puppy dog eyes. "I'll miss you too hime."

She smiled as she buried her face into his shoulder, she loved it when he called her his princess. It always made her feel special. She still didn't like that he was going to be away for a month and was half tempted to sneak off and follow them to Wave, it's not like they wouldn't need the help what with the demon brothers and Zabuza not to mention Haku. But she couldn't do that, her team needed her in the village for missions and training.

"At least let me walk you to the main gate?" She pleaded, Naruto took one look at her and responded with an "Of course."

Soon after the duo exited the apartment and made their way to the main gates that connected Konoha with the rest of the world. Along their way they talked idly about this and that, nothing to overly important until the concept of marriage came up. "I want something traditional, like our first wedding but a bit bigger," Tenten said with a slight gleam in her eye.

Their first wedding was simple, just their friends and family the clan heads came to wish the Namikaze couple luck in their future together. The Akimichi catered the event, you should have seen Choji's mom frantically planning out the horderves and appitiser's, Choji had suggested having all you can eat BBQ and ramen, you should have seen the look of rage that passed over both her and Tenten's face.

Hinata and Hanabi help with the bride's dress and if Naruto had any room to talk he would say they outdid themselve's. It was a little known fact that Hinata loved to sew and if the dress she made was any indication she was damn good at it too. It was a moderate dress that showed off a little skin but not by much, Tenten was never one to flaunt her beautiful skin after all, the dress was long and flowing at the bottom and hugged her natural curve's perfectly, at the waist the dress parted slightly into snowflake-like patterns and in the center showed off her navel as well at the center of her stomach. The dress had two connecting cups for her breast's and was held together by an intercut series of hooks at her back. A lot the good the dress did her because once they retired to their home she shed it for a more comfortable birthday suit.

"I liked the one we had, all our friends and family. The dress Hinata and Hanabi made was amazing too," Naruto said which gained a nod of agreement from the weapon mistress. They were so busy talking that they hardly noticed that they had arrived at the gate, Sakura was the first to great them as she was Naruto's friend.

"Hey Naruto-kun," she greeted warmly before noticing Tenten, "Hello I dont believe we've met. Im Sakura Haruno, Naruto-Kun's teammate."

Tenten acknowledged the girl with a smile but on the inside, she was rolling her eyes. She had nothing overly bad to say about the pinkette but she was also not overly fond of her neither. She had verbally and physically abused Naruto during their childhood in the academy and even on the same team as well as broke his heart later in life, the fact Naruto befriended the loud girl again astounded her. "My names Tenten, im Naruto-kun's girlfriend."

The young brunette's words caught them by surprise, Sakura because while she knew Naruto had moved on from her she was surprised that the girl wasn't someone she knew from the academy like Hinata. Sasuke was surprised because he couldn't believe that someone so pathetic as Naruto could get with a decently attractive girl. Tazuna, who had overheard the conversation smirked and nodded in approval silently wishing the kid luck with the relationship while Kakashi eye smiled.

"If I remember correctly your from Gai's team, how did you get to know how knucklehead," Kakashi stated while ignoring the glare he recieved from the blonde about being called a knucklehead.

"Well... I found him training in one of the old training grounds a few years ago and we became friends," Naruto couldn't help but respect who easy his wife found it to come up with lie's, he himself struggled with it when he was confronted with using his fathers technique during team 7's final test. Luckily he wasn't some ordinary child or he wouldn't have gotten away with it. After kissing Tenten goodbye they made their way out of the main gates that led out of Konoha, being the experienced ninja Naruto was he was constantly using his ability to sense negative emotions ever since he left the village and it located two individuals that seemed to be stalking the genin team, the blonde time traveler smirked slightly as he felt the presence of what he could only assume was the demon brother's moving from their position to where they would attempt to ambush the team. Last time Kakashi allowed the demon brothers to attack without doing a thing about it leaving his woefully unprepared genin to fight off the chunnin missing-nin by themselve's this time however they were ready, what he had said was no lie Sakura was well on her way to being a great shinobi there was little to no dought in his mind that when the chunnin exams rolled around that this time she would make it to the final round, as for Sasuke as much as it made him sick to think about was one of the best genins that had come out of Konoha. While he wasn't nearly at his peak physical condition he could use a fraction of his future power.

"Tazuna-san?" The silence that serounded them was broken by Sakura, "Your from the land of Waves, right?" This question gained the attention of all her companions.

"Yeah."

"Well, why hire us and not ninja from your country?" Naruto smirked as he turned to face her whilee walking backward.

"Sakura-chan," Natuto said interupting his sensei that was about to speak, his sudden voice gained the attention of his team and client. "The land of Waves don't have a shinobi village anymore," he said while stressing the word 'anymore' he was inthe unique possition to make his lafe a bit better as he resigned to letting his team know of his clan.

The pinkette arched an eyebrow in confusion, Kakashi raised his one visavle eyebrow as if questioning his blonde charge. Naruto sent him a reassuring nod and smile, the jonin desided that he would trust the boys judgement on this matter. "What do you mean 'anymore'?"

The young jinchiriki turned around to face the path, his face adopted a sad expressiong. His heritage was always a sore subject for him, expessialy his mother. "The land of Waves used to have the village of Uzugakure but during the second shinobi war it was destroyed."

Sasuke scoffed, "They dont sound so tough." Naruto sneered at hearing this, the Uzumaki clan which made of three-fourth's of the village's population were amongst the strongest cland to ever exist in the ninja world. On par with their cousin clan the Senju and the Uchiha. Kakashi saw the look on the blonde's face.

"Actually it took a combined effort of Kumo, Kiri and Iwa to even consider attacking that village. Even then casualtie's were high on both side's," Sasuke rolled his eyes at his sensei's words. Sakura stared on in awe, it sounds like Uzu was strong.

"How do you know so much about this place dobe?" questioned Sasuke. Naruto looked up yowards the sky and his eyes seemed to gleam as a smile spread across his face.

"My birth mother was from that village," he said. Sakura smiled at hearing the amount of emotion in her friends voice, Sasuke looked at him with raised eyebrows. Tazuna stared at the young mans back, his focus was on the red spiral on his black shirt. "Whats you man kid?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

Tazuna dtopped in his tracks at hearing the surname, the others stared at him but Naruto and Kakashi since they already knew of the ties Uzugakure had with the serounding villages of Wave. "Uzumaki as in..."

"Yup," Kakashi said in a lazy voice. "Naruto here is the son of the last survivi member of the Uzumaki clan," this got a reaction from the three who had not already known of his heritage. Sakura stared wiwide eyed at the blonde's back, she had no idea that his family originated from another village let alone a clan. Sasuke stared harder at Naruto'd back, the ends of his lips curled up slightly to the point that if you looked close enough you could make out the smallest of smile's.

"Wow I had no idea," Sakura said while rushing up and standing beside the blonde. "You never said anything?"

Naruto nodded, "One person doesn't make a clan so I never saw much of a point." They walked insilence before Kakashi noticed his blonde charge's eyes snap to something in the road, following his gaze the silver-haired jonin noticed he was looking at a puddle, he smirked underneath his mask with pride that the boy noticed something so many would have overlooked, he sighed however when he noticed the other two seemed not to have noticed it. Suddenly the blonde snapped back towards the puddle as he sensed the chakra spike and noticed the demon brothers charging them, Sakura gasped as the brothers wrapped Kakashi in their chain's and ripped him apart. "One down," exclaimed one of the missing-nin.

Sakura's eyes widened but thanks to her training she knew that if she stuck to what she was taught that she could handle nearly anything, she pulled a kunai from her pouch and stood protectively between Tazuna and the missing-nin, Naruto saw this and smirk proudly that after all that training she had started to develop a backbone. One of the demon brothers charged at the blonde but in contrast to last time when he froze, he was ready as he sidestepped the jab that was aimed for the center of his chest, Naruto gathered his chakra into his palms as he slammed them into the side of the missing-nin's chest. The effect was instant as the man was shot off creating distance between him and Naruto, though even then he wasn't done as he shot a poisoned chain dagger in the blondes direction that was deflected as the jinchiriki channeled chakra into his foot and used the appendage to guide the dagger above him before he grabbed at the chain and pulled with all his chakra enhanced might. Having underestimated the genin the brother had little chance to protect himself from being pulled into the blonde's waiting fist, Naruto punched the man in the jaw with Tsunade's super strength sending the scraggly haired man into a large boulder. The brother slumped his head as he fell unconscious.

Naruto smirked as he looked down at his fist and clenched it, his power was slowly returning. Little by little, he was becoming his true self. "Meizu!" Shouted his brother Gouzu which gained the blonde's attention, as he turned to face his next opponent. In his peripheral vision, he saw Sasuke weaving some very familiar hand signs and backflipped away before Gouzu's gauntlet could impale itself into his chest. "Fire release: Fireball jutsu!"

A large ball of fire was blown from the Uchiha's maw which made Gouzu retreat briefly before he recollecting himself and lashing out at what he assumed was the weaker amoungst the three genin, the ststraight haired brunette jabbed his gauntlet towayds Sakura's head but she was expecting it and parried it before kneeing the man in the chin.

The remaining demon brother fummbled backward as he clutched his chin, regaining his composer he glared heatedly at Sakura before attempting another attack. Sakura was ready for it as she winded up for straight jab but before she could Kakashi jumped down from a tree and caught the brother in a lariate.

The silver-haired jonin turned to face Sakura and eye smiled. "Good job protecting the client Sakura," Kakashi said before walking over and patting Sasuke and Naruto on the head. "You all did great."

Naruto couldn't help the smile that broke out across his face, Sasuke grew annoyed at the physical contact. The blonde turned to gaze at his pink friend and a sence of pride filled his heart, he had taken a fangirl with little to no physical training and turned her into a functioning genin, Sakura saw that his eyes were on her and smiled back at him offering him a silent thank you.

"Now," Kakashi stated as he turned towards the elderly bridge builder. "You have some explaining to do."

Tazuna sweatdropped before explaining the situation in Wave country, how Gato not only transported good but also drugs, money and anything else illegal. How the country was poor because of their inability to export or jmport trade and how the tyrant had monopolised it. How anyone who opposed the man would find thugs being sent after them or their family's being either threated or physicaly abused.

"I see," the silver-haired jonin said as he adopted a thinking pose. "That is indeed awful."

Tazuna looked at the man with hope in his eyes. "So you'll help?!"

Kakashi at the man and saw the hope that filled them, he sighed and looked at his genin. "This was supposed to be a C-rank mission, but now its eaily a B-rank maybe low A-rank," he sighed again while rubbing his neck. "We should return to the village..." he glanced at Naruto. "What do you kids think."

The blonde snorted, "I say we continue," Naruto said with confidance even though his instinct's as a Holage was telling him other wise. He knew he could handle it, Sakura was getting better and could only improve from were sge currently was and Sasuke, as much as it pains him to say, can handle himself in a fight just fine. "We easily took care of those two," he motioned with his nose were the two unconsious missing-nin were tied up. "I think we can do this."

Sasuke chuckled arragantly. "Im an Uchiha, an elite." Naruto scowled at the self-proclaimed avenger.

"Of Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun are going then so am I," Sakura said with a smile. She would not let them out do her, she was already so far behind them that it wasn't even funny, she would be damned if she let the get farther away.

\--~A Kunai in Time~--

"Wow its so huge," Sakura said as she stared at the uncomplete bridge above them. Kakashi eye smiled at his student's as he read his little orange book.

"Keep it down please," said the ferrie man. "We gotta remain quite or they might taks notice of us." Sakura quited down and they enjoyed the rest of the boat ride in relative silence, the only sound that could be heard was the suttle crashing of wake's in the water they found tthemselve's flowting in. Before long they made it to the shore before the resumed travtraveling by foot, the forest surrounding the village they were heading too coated the ground, the blonde started using his jinchiriki ability to sence for any form of negative emotion. It wasn't too hard to sence Zabuza's presence.

He smirked as he moved his hand to his kunai pouch without alerting Zabuza or his teammate's. "There!" he shouted before hurling the kunai at the place that he knew the missing-nin was, he senced his dissapear and re-appear on a tree behind him. Sakura's knee's were shaking from the sudden outburst of her blonde firend, Naruto walked into the bush to retrieve him kunai and to Sakura's suprise it came back with a snow white rabbit.

"Naruto-baka, are you trieing to give me a heart attack," Sakura shouted. Naruto just looked at her and shook his head.

"You're too young and healthy to have a heart attack. Beside's you should thank me for catching dinner," he said with a smile as he held the rabbit by its ears. Kakashi stared at the rabbit, Naruto may be able to fool Sasuke and Sakura but not a well trained and experianced jonin like himself. He knew someone was there. 'A white rabbit? It's spring it should be brown.'

Thats when he felt the hair's on tthe back of his neck stand on end as he heard the faint should of a blade being hurled through the air. "EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Kakashi shouted as he grabbed Tazuna and it the ground. For his part Naruto dived at Sakura and tackled her to the ground, Sasuke ducked as the blade passed over his head. A part of Naruto's mind cursed as he had hoped that he would of got caught by the blade and died, it would save him the trouble of killing him, himself.

The large blade burried itself into a tree and the group saw a man appear on the hilt of the massive blade. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Kakashi Hatake."

\--A Kunai in Time--

**Whoa, cliff hanger. I hope you all like this, it took me longer than expected due to my computer basically forcing me to reinstall windows, I was terrified that when it wiped my hard drive that I would loss theprogress I have already made on this chapter.**

**Does the cliff hanger make me a bad person?**

**Sorry that there were no line breaks, im currently at work eating lunch and I just finished this, going to upload it now rather then latter so everyone can read and enjoy.**

**_**

A Kunai in Time

**_**


	6. Chapter 6

Naruto stared up at where the man, known as the Demon of the hidden mist once was but now was replaced by dense fog, he mentally smiled as he remembered his first encounter with Haku. He was important to the young blonde, after all, he taught young Naruto what made a person truly strong 'To protect those precious to you, that is what makes you truly strong,' those were the words that were spoken all those years ago. Returning his attention to reality the young jinchiriki could physically feel the killer intent rolling of Zabuza and Naruto had to admit that for an unexperienced genin it was suffocating, the clash of two jonin intent to attack, glancing over he saw Sakura trembling in fear as she stood in front of Tazuna, Sasuke stared wide-eyed at the man that seemed to personify fear it was obvious that he had not felt something so intense in his lifetime. He arched an eyebrow when he saw the Uchiha raise his kunai as if believing that injuring himself would free him from the constant reality that was being a shinobi.

Sensing his students fear Kakashi spoke, "Sasuke," getting the attention of the Uchiha heir, "Calm down, I will protect you with my life, I'll protect all of you. I will not allow my comrades to die." This seemed to have the desired effect as Naruto could see the trembling in the young Uchiha's body vanish.

"I wouldn't be so sure," came the raspy voice of Zabuza who had reappeared in between the three genins and their client. "It's over."

"Dont move," Kakashi said as he turned towards the mist demon and charged him with a kunai in hand, stabbing the man while the three genins and client made some distance between the jonin and missing-nin.

'Now it's over,' Sasuke thought with a smirk as he noticed the blood flooding out of Zabuza's stomach, only to notice that it was not blood but water. The impaled man turned to water before falling to the ground with a splash the eyes of the genin grew wide as they noticed another Zabuza appear in the mist directly behind their sensei. "Sensei behind you," Sakura exclaimed but she was too late as she watched the bandaged man cleave Kakashi in two. Her eyes grew as wide as saucer's as she shrieked in fear of what the swordsman could and most likely would do to them. Kakashi's body fell to the ground with a splash of water.

Zabuza eyed the water clone in amazement as he felt Kakashi re-appear behind him and raise a kunai to his throat. "Now it's over," Kakashi said. "You're finished."

Zabuza began to chuckle at this which gained the confusion of the group, Naruto rolled his eyes at the smugness shown by both ninjas. If this had been the war they would have been killed ten times over by this point.

"Finished?" Zabuza questioned once his chuckling died down. "You dont get it, do you? Your technique is nothing more than an imitation, I'll never be defeated by a mear copy cat ninja like you," Zabuza seemed to sneer the words 'copy cat ninja.' Kakashi growled lowly as the missing-nin began to chuckle softly again. "You copied my water clone jutsu and thought it would surprise me, your nothing but a cheap imitation." The demon said before another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi as the original fell apart into water, "Nice try but im not that easy to fool." The man swung his behemoth of a sword to slice the silver-haired jonin in two but Kakashi ducked at the last second but this did not deter his opponent as he impaled the ground with the large blade before he swiveled on the hilt of his blade and kicked Kakashi through the air and into the water's of the ocean.

Sakura stared wide-eyed at were her sensei had fallen, she watched as the man they had entrusted their live's to sink beneath the waters. 'I can't believe it, Kakashi-sensei is loosing.'

She glanced over to her two teammates with worry evident in her eyes. She knew they were both strong, perhaps stronger than anyone else from their graduating class but she doubted they could handle this man without getting killed. Kakashi emerged from the water's of the ocean but something felt off about the water he was currently waiting in, it felt different. Less fluid and more denser, that's when his eyes widened as he noticed it. "Too late," Zabuza said as he appeared behind the waterlogged Kakashi, "Water Prison Jutsu," he exclaimed as a dome of water surrounded the jonin.

Zabuza chuckled, "This prison is made of water, but it's as strong as steel. It's hard to fight when you can't move, you should give up and hand over the bridge builder." The man turned towards the genin as he made one hand sign and a water clone rose from the ground, Sakura's eyes widened in fear as she watched the clone walking out of the water and face them.

"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja when you have hovered between life and death so many times that it doesn't phase you then you may call yourself a ninja," the clone spoke in the same raspy voice of its summoner. "When you become so deadly that your name is entered into my bingo book then you may be called a ninja. But calling upstart's like you ninja is an insult to the craft," the clone said as it made a hand sign and the mist started to grow thick and visibility depleted. The clone disappeared from view and before anyone could react he kicked Naruto in the ribs causing the young ninja to be sent backward, his headband flew off his forehead and the clone stepped on it. "Your nothing but brats."

"Naruto-kun," Sakura exclaimed with worry for her friend.

Kakashi stared at his students before glancing back towards the real Zabuza and turning back to the kids again. "Listen get out of hearing, take the bridge builder and run," hearing this caught all of their attention. "This guy is too much for you, take the bridge builder and run!"

'Run?' Sasuke thought with mirth.

"No way," the others turned to see Naruto getting back to his feet. "Running away become impossible the second you got caught, Baka-sensei. He would just catch up to us and without you were dead," Naruto exclaimed which earned a small iota of respect from the demon of the mist.

"I like you kid, you know when you're outmatched. Tell me what is your name?" Asked the original Zabuza.

"Listen up and listen well," Naruto said as he glared daggers and pointed an accusatory finger in the original's direction. "Put this in your bingo book ya no eyebrow having freak, the ninja who will become Hokage of Konohagakure, his name... is Naruto Uzumaki." This made Sakura smile as she saw his boundless confidence.

Zabuza started to laugh, "I really like you kid, you got guts. Perhaps you can call yourself a ninja." Naruto smirked before Zabuza's eyes took on a more aggressive expression. "Sadly this is where it ends," Zabuza said as he charged with his elbow extended and struck Sasuke in the ribs sending the unprepared Uchiha to the sailing into a tree with a thud before elbow dropping into his stomach. Naruto sneered and made the familiar hand sign before 15 Naruto's surrounded the clone of Zabuza. The demon arched an eyebrow.

"Shadow clones?" He missing-nin said as he looked over the crowd. "You are impressive," this made Sasuke sneer as he saw the dobe have a power he believed should be his, but that could be remedied another time for know he needed to focus on a way to defeat this missing-nin. The Naruto's rushed in with kunai in hand, they piled atop the man before each of them were cut in two. The original Naruto sneered at the missing-nin as he dug into his pack and unfurled the windmill shuriken.

"Demon Wind Shiruken: Windmill of Shadow's," Naruto exclaimed as he threw the deadly pinwheel towards the clone. Zabuza smirked underneath his bandage's before gasping as he noticed the shuriken fly right by him and head straight for his original body.

"So you missed the clone and aimed for my real body, smart," The original said before catching the shuriken, "But not smart enough," he said as if gloating about how he caught a projectile thrown by a genin. Naruto smirked as Zabuza's eyes widened at the sight of a second Windmill shuriken. 'A second shuriken in the shadow of the first,' Zabuza thought, 'The shadow shuriken jutsu!'

They all waited on bated breath as the second shuriken flew towards its intended target but just as it was about to make contact Zabuza jumped, much to the chagrin of Sakura and Sasuke. "I told you a shuriken can't touch me!" The demon exclaimed, the blonde smirked and made a show of snapping his thumb and index finger together. Zabuza turned to see the blonde's second shuriken poof into smoke and out came, a second Naruto brandishing a kunai before throwing it, the missing-nin's eyes grew wide as he judged the angle of the throw and cursed under his breath as he came to terms with the fact that he couldn't just dodge this one. He removed his arm from the water prison and jumped away to create distance between himself and the newly freed Kakashi.

The missing-nin turned towards Naruto enraged that the blonde brat had succeeded in freeing his sensei from the man's dastardly clutches. He spun the shuriken aggressively before unleashing it onto his prey but as he was about to unleash it was his hand was stopped by the back plating of Kakashi's gloved hand. "Your technique worked on me once, but it will not work a second time."

* * *

Tenten sighed as she stood with her team in the mission hall as their sensei picked out yet another C-rank mission for them, it's not that she didn't want to go on a mission outside of the village. What with Naruto gone off to the land of wave's it was the only thing she could do, Ojiro had gone on a trip to Iron Country to collect some materials to create more of the weapons he sold at the weapon shop and wouldn't be home for a week or two. So there they are standing around waiting for Gai to pick out a mission for them, she sighed as she thought to her blonde husband as she wondered what he could be doing right now most likely disposing of the demon brother's, quite efficiently she might add. They probably already found out that the mission was a, in fact, not a C-rank but actually a high B to low A-rank.

"All right, my youthful students," the overly energetic voice of their sensei brought her out of her thought's. The boisterous jonin stood proud at 6' tall with a bowl cut of straight black hair and the whitest smile that had ever existed on the planet, her teammate Lee was no different in fact he looked like an exact copy of their sensei what with his green spandex suit, orange leg and arm warmer's, and those ridiculously large eyebrow's that have been mistaken for huge caterpillar's at one point. "I've secured us a rather youthful mission of delivering a message to Suna."

The Hyuuga on her team that wore the white, tan, and beige outfit spoke next, "How long do we have until we are fated to leave, sensei." Tenten deadpanned at this, she forgot how annoying Neji was when he went on and on about fate when they were young. But thankfully after he was thoroughly beaten by the 'Dead Last' he learned a much-needed lesson, fate does not control us.

"We'll meet up at the main gate in 10 minute's, get everything you'll need for a week-long journey," Gai said before vanishing in a swirl of leaves. Tenten rolled her eyes before walking towards the door, the sooner she got packed the sooner they could get this mission over with and the sooner she could get to planning a plan B if this whole save the Uchiha doesn't work out. Not that she really wanted it to work, she hated how that made her sound but the truth is that she hates the Uchiha, he destroyed her home, he had nearly killed Naruto on more than one occasion and forced him to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect their home. But her husband was dead set on trying to save him from Orochimaru and well she couldn't rightly refuse him something he wanted so badly. All he asked for was a chance after all.

"Is everything alright on this most youthful of day's Tenten-san?" Asked the sensei clone himself, Rock Lee. She looked at him as she walked, their house's were in the same direction so he would be walking with her most of the way, while Neji lived at the Hyuuga compound which was in the opposite direction.

"Im fine Lee just got a lot on my mind," she said to avoid the conversation. People take Lee for an idiot but that wasn't the case he was damn smart, she knew she couldn't lie to him repeatedly and not expect him to eventually figure something out. "It's just... my boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend," Lee said in excitement. "That is most youthful, who is he?"

The weapon mistress looked at her ninjutsu challenged friend and smiled. "His name's Naruto Uzumaki," Lee nodded as she spoke about the boy that had won her heart, to the young taijutsu specialist this Naruto person sounded like a good guy. Selfless and caring or as Lee would 'Most Youthful'.

"He's gone on a mission right now and probably won't be back until the Chunin exams roll around."

Lee nodded, "And you miss him?"

"Well yeah, I wouldn't still be with him if I didn't love him," she said with a smile. "Im more worried that he'll come home broken," she said earning a confused look from her bowl-haired friend. "You know, first kill and whatnot." Lee nodded and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Well, when he does come back. He'll have you right there to cheer him up," he said before turning and disappearing behind a corner as he walked home. Tenten watched as her friend walked away, she didn't like lying to her friends and least of all her teammate's but she couldn't really tell Lee that she was thinking about how to kill a fellow Leaf shinobi, assuming that Naruto's plan doesn't work. So she walked away, her destination being not too far away from were she parted ways with Lee.

"Tou-san! Im home," she called out to her father as she made her way into the weapon shop. Ojiro poked his head around the corner of the wall that separated the sales floor from the staring way.

"Ten-chan? What are you doing here, is everything alright?"

"Everythings fine, Naruto-kuns out on a mission and I have to get my thing's ready for a delivery mission with my team," she said with a smile as she passed him and walked up the stairs to the family room.

* * *

He watched as the pillar of water began to seep back into the ocean from which it came, Kakashi crouched on a tree branch just above where Zabuza was stuck with kunai. The silver-haired man looked down at the demon with narrowed eyes and in turn, Zabuza glanced up at him with shock in his own, Naruto watched this from his place as he stood beside Sakura guarding Tazuna.

"How... can you... see into the future," Zabuza managed to get out, referring to when Kakashi copied his water dragon jutsu even before he himself was able to cast it. Kakashi smirked underneath his mask. "Yes, this is your last battle," the silver-haired jonin said as he pulled out a kunai. "Ever."

Just then Naruto could slightly pick up on something moving very quickly through the air thanks to the advanced sense's he recieved for being a jinchiriki. The rapidly moving objects were simple senbon typically used for medical practice, the senbon quickly flew towards their intended target, Zabuza's neck. They struck the exact spot that paralyzes the human body, Naruto smirked internally.

The rest of the group present stared dumbly as the demon of the mist's body fell limply to the ground. "What the?" question Sakura before the hunter-nin decided to make himself known.

"You were right, it was his last battle," the fake hunter chuckled. Kakashi eyed the hunter before jumping to Zabuza's side and placing two fingers on the man's neck to check for a pulse when he noticed no vital sign's he informed his team of his discovery. The hunter bowed slightly. "Thank you, I've been tracking him for quite some time."

"By the mask, I can tell you're a hunter from Kiri," Kakashi stated as the hunter jumped to his side. The jonin decided to make his way towards his genin as to not interfere with the hunter's work. "That is correct."

Naruto smirked before giving his masked friend a thumbs up, "Good work hunter-san." The hunter bowed towards the blonde before picking up the seemingly dead man, the blonde watched with mild concern. Sure he could expose Haku but that would possibly mean having to fight him and Naruto didn't really want to do that, and if they had won said battle then that would only mean Gato would hire another missing-nin, possibly one that even he with his future knowledge didn't know of. He decided to let them go, beside's this only mean's when he meets him again in the forest on their third night in Wave that Naruto could possibly speak with the missing-nin duo and persuade them to ditch the contract they have with Gato in favor of working with him to stop Sasuke.

"I thank you for what you have done," Haku said as he shunshined away. Kakashi eye smile at his student's as he began to walk towards them, the blonde began to move closer to his sensei knowing that any second now that we will collapse from chakra exhaustion. Soon enough Kakashi started to fumble in his steps and when he began to go down Naruto was there to catch him.

"Sensei!"

The blonde shook his head, "He's fine just exhausted," he said before turning towards their client. "Tazuna-san, how far are we from your house?"

Tazuna noded. "Not far now."

Once they made it to the house they met Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter and owner of the house, she was a beautiful woman in her mid to late twenties, she had dark blue hair and soft eyes. He lay Kakashi on a spar futon in one of the guest rooms by that point he had woken up but was too weak to move around.

Naruto leaned against the wall of Tsunami's house as he listened to Kakashi explain to his less than knowledgeable teammate's, how they didn't know that a hunter ninja was supposed to dispose of the body on the scene was shocking really, it was at this moment that in the future he would change the academy's curriculum so that future generation's would have this knowledge. Sakura looks absolutely terrified and the blonde couldn't blame her, Zabuza was her first real opponent and he was at the top of a very long list of people you dont want to mess with, Sasuke look thrilled at the prospect of getting a shot at fighting with Zabuza and this mystery person. Naruto had to hold back a scoff, leave it to the Uchiha's arrogance to make him believe he was something special, he didn't even have his Sharingan activated and yet he believed he was so much more than anyone else like he was some sort of superhuman.

"So yeah, Zabuza's still alive," the silver-haired jonin said as he took a moment to glance at his genin. "So starting tomorrow, im going to begin your training."

Naruto internally scoffed, no real training was going to be done. Hell, the blonde was more a sensei to Sakura than Kakashi was, beside's all they would be learning was the tree walking exercise that Naruto already knew. He hadn't started Sakura on it just yet because she had yet to learn anything that she couldn't handle, her chakra control was good even before the exercise. The young time traveler smiled, training the pinkette reminded him of when he would unofficially train the Konohamaru corps. to the surprise of nearly all of his friends, he took to the role of sensei rather easily.

Silently he began thinking of ways to improve upon his new charge's ability, if memory served him correctly she had little to no problem with the tree-climbing exercise and the next step to learn better chakra control would be water walking but he felt that may be a bit extreme for her if she was starting on tree climbing tomorrow. He sighed before walking out of the room, walking through the hallway that leads from the room team seven's men shared he walked down the stairs that lead to the living room and out the front door and sat on the front steps of the porch. He closed his eyes and let the cold night air of Wave country sooth him as he meditated.

Concentrating inwardly the darkness of his inner world started to fade until the mental image of himself standing in front of a large wooden red door with ornate golden fox's carved onto the door henges, grabbing at the familiar door nob of his mindscape he turned it and found that he couldn't, it was still locked to him. Outside of the crack's that littered the wall surrounding the door it seemed untouched, much like it did when he first visited the door when he first recieved his future memories. He sighed before turning and exiting the mindscape.

Naruto opened his eyes before looking up into the night sky, it made no sense. Why was he cut off from his mindscape, why could he not contact Kurama? The blonde was so wrapped up by his internal thoughts that he didn't even notice his pink-haired friend approach him from behind. "Penny for your thoughts?"

He turned and glanced at Sakura as she sat down next to him on the stoop. He leaned back against the house, "Just thinking about what happened today."

"What do you mean?"

Naruto sighed, "It's just... im not strong enough," even after all the training that he had put himself through after regaining his memories he still wasn't as strong as he will be, would he ever get that strong as he is now. He understood that without the ability to access Kurama's chakra at will he couldn't access the technique's that he created utilizing his chakra. He couldn't even access his golden coak and even then he wouldn't be able to use it like he once did, but he at least figured that he could handle a fight with Zabuza without having trouble. The blonde looked over toward his pink friend and smiled, "You've come along way since we graduated though."

Sakura smiled at her friend's praise of her ability, "It's only because you worried about me," she said before glancing down at the boards of the step below her. "Thanks for that... if it wasn't for you then I probably would have died when the demon brother's attacked. Beside's Sasuke-kun has started to look at me more."

Naruto smiled, his actions were starting to change the future he knew it. With a bit more pushing and the pinkette will be able to fill the void in Sasuke's hear and slowly love will replace the need for vengeance in his heart. "I didn't do it alone, because you want Sasuke-san to love you as much as you do him. That's why your improving, so you can prove yourself to him."

"Ahh mmm," came a voice behind them, turning towards the door they saw the bridge builder's daughter, Tsunami peering out from the doorway. "Dinner's ready," she said as she turned and walked back inside. The duo nodded and followed in after her, glancing back towards the pinkette Naruto couldn't help feeling somewhat bad. This plan of his was essentially feeding her obsession for the Uchiha, he was using her to achieve a better future. He didn't like how that felt but his more logical adult mind knew it was nessisairy.

* * *

**What's up boy's, the chapter's done and not a minute too soon. I wanted to get this out before my birthday tomorrow so I could focus solely on spending time with family. I'll be turning 23 and will be spending most of my time during my birthday looking for a shed that will act as my workshop while forging knives, I also need better steel to be able to make blades with.**

**This chapter's pretty short in comparison with other's I have written, just a bit more than 4000 words while others I typically keep around 5000 words. Oh well, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and hope that you all look forward to chapter 6, I think... yeah 6. Training starts next chapter then, later on, will be the second meeting of Haku. Chapter 7 I hope it will mostly consist of the final battle with Zabuza and then Chapter 8 should be the beginnings of the Chunin exams.**

**Im rewatching the Wave mission Arc so I could more accurately portray the battles and whatnot.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Last chapter I wrote while rewatching the Zabuza fight because I dont remember it that well, and while I want to keep key events like the fight as canon as I can I think I overdid it. Sorry.**

**People are telling me to just kill Sasuke off now but first you have to think, is that something Naruto would do. I dont believe so, I believe he would at the most try to save Sasuke from his hate then I think when he gets his curse mark its a lost cause, but by then they're in the village so he would most likely wait for the valley of the end. Dont want people finding the corpse. The power he receives from it further cements his behavior. There's an order of operations to things like this and some of you may think im just making it up as I go, but im not.**

**Sasuke still defects and Naruto kills him. However, what happens between then and now is what I wish to tell. Like I said once in a past chapter, Sakura fans your not going to like me come to the final chapter. TeeHee**

* * *

Morning came and Naruto's eyes fluttered open, the smell of freshly cook food wafted through the air. The blonde looked around the plain beige room that he and the other males of team 7 shared, Kakashi was already up and walking assisted with his Krutch and Sasuke was still asleep on his futon. The blonde walked up next to the raven-haired boy and peered down at him with cold eyes, it would be too easy for Naruto to pull a kunai out of his pouch and dig it into the Uchiha's skull. Orochimaru wouldn't be able to give him his curse mark, Sasuke would no longer be a threat. Many would say that this was his chance, the best chance for him to enact his plan, the perfect time to be done with his mission and live out the rest of his second life in peace, or relative peace until the Akatsuki started to move.

He held a kunai out in front of himself and watched the reflection of himself in its cold steel, his eyes cut towards Sasuke as the Uchiha turned over in his sleep. Naruto could only imagine what his team would think, Sakura would feel betrayed by the man she had come to call friend and Kakashi would most likely either try to kill him for bringing him back to Konoha in chains, the old bastards on the council would send him to the gallows for sure.

He shook his head and put the kunai away in his pouch, he couldn't do that. While Sasuke was his most hated enemy, even he deserved a chance at life, he may be arrogant and annoying but life is life and Naruto had no right to take it before that life had a chance to turn down the dark path. 'Rest assured Sasuke Uchiha, the moment you do something unforgivable your life is mine.'

Naruto placed a hand on the Uchiha's shoulder and shook him awake. Sasuke looked up at the boy through sleepy eyes, "Dobe? What do you want?"

"Time to get up," Naruto said as he tried to not sound annoyed at the name of dobe. "Breakfast should be ready and we have training."

The Uchiha nodded and the duo made their way down the stair's were their other two teammates were, the pinkette saw the two first and smiled. Kakashi saw this and turned to glance at his two students, "Morning you two."

"Morning sensei."

"Hn."

Team 7 and the family sat down to eat, the lady of the house Tsunami had prepared a lovely breakfast of eggs and ham. After breakfast, the silent son of Tsunami walked off to his room, not before sending a slight glare team 7's way, the look went unnoticed by the other's but Naruto had been paying extra attention to Inari ever since they had arrived.

"So sensei," Sasuke said as he sat on Kakashi's right. "What will you be teaching us?"

The silver-haired jonin shook his head. "I'll tell you when we get there," he said as he began to stand but fumbled slightly, Sakura saw this and quickly moved under him, Kakashi grunted before grabbing at his Krutch. "Im fine Sakura, just... gotta get used to walking with this thing."

The team walked out of the house and into the dense wood's behind it, Naruto watched in mild excitement as Kakashi explained the exercise. Tree climbing is simple once you get the hang of it, simply channel chakra into the sole's of your feet and walk up a tree, it's not only good for building up your control and reserves but also for building muscle mass since your constantly defying gravity. If too much chakra is applied then you'll shoot if the tree, if not enough then you'll slide off.

He watched as the pinkette walked effortlessly up the tree, she was able to execute the exercise perfectly the first time but this time, due to her extra training she walked up the tree as if she was a seasoned shinobi. Naruto chuckled as he watched the prideful Uchiha fall off the tree and land on his head, Sasuke turned and glared at the blonde.

"Why dont you do it dobe," he said with a smirk, "Unless your chicken?"

The blonde arched an eyebrow as he walked up to a tree with his arms folded. He glanced back towards the Uchiha and smirked before placing a single foot on the tree... and then the other, Sasuke sneered as he watched Naruto effortlessly walk up the tree and high five Sakura when he reached the topmost branch. The blonde time traveler watched as the Uchiha attempted the exercise again only to fall on his head yet again. For Naruto even though he hated Sasuke it was still painful to watch, "Sasuke-san calm down," Naruto called from the branch he shared with Sakura.

The pinkette smiled as her friend offered her crush some advice. "Just clear your mind and visualize your feet," Sakura shouted down to him.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah think of them as a cup and your chakra like water. Fill the cup Sasuke-san," he stood upon the branch and pointed down at the Uchiha. "Fill the cup."

Sakura giggle and shook her head at the blonde's antics.

Kakashi smiled underneath his face mask and shook his head, the analogy of filling a foot-shaped cup was an odd one but Naruto was an odd boy. Sasuke growled softly but closed his eyes and visualized a glass, visualizing a foot-shaped glass was just too weird for him, he started off filling just enough to cover the bottom of the glass before trying again, he slipped off after 3 step's but it was progressing. Naruto smiled as he watched the Uchiha try again before falling again he smiled, at the very least he was making fast progress and hopefully would have the exercise down by tomorrow so they could start on another exercise, while the blonde didn't want to feed Sasuke's ego he did want him to grow stronger before the second phase of the chunin exam's. He would need it to defend himself against Orochimaru. The boy looked off into the horizon as he thought on the events to come, Orochimaru one of the greatest S-ranked criminal's that the village of Konoha had known since Madara Uchiha. During the Chunin exam's Sasuke was given the snake sannin's curse mark which gave the Uchiha a taste of the power he had always craved which had only made him crave even more which lead to him running to the snake bastard.

Sakura noticed the look of intense contemplation on her blonde teammate's face, "Naruto-kun, are you ok?"

Her sudden voice had snapped the Uzumaki out of his thoughts and the one activity that he had sworn he would never do. he was brooding! Not over his fate of having to relive some of the more difficult events of his younger years or that he would have to re-kill the Akatsuki, no he was brooding over the Uchiha. "Nothing... just thinking."

She arched an eyebrow, "About?"

Naruto shook his head, he was prepared for the pinkette to ask and had an appropriate lie ready to use. He didn't know how he felt about how easy it was becoming to lie, "I... may have asked Ten-chan to marry me and she may have said yes." He couldn't tell his pink friend that he was thinking about the fate of the man she loved, the same fate that would lead to him killing said love interest, beside's it's not like he wouldn't re-marry her... in time. It'll just happen a little quicker than he would have thought. Sakura's eyes widened and she squealed in joy as she heard the news, she may not know much of the girl but from the way Naruto talked of her she was something special to him and that she was an experience weapon specialist. The pinkette hugged the blonde in excitement.

"That's amazing, im happy for you." Naruto smiled as the pinkette pulled herself off him, he looked down and saw that Sasuke was halfway up the tree. Things were progressing well perhaps tomorrow they could get Kakashi to show them some jutsu that could help them with their future fights. The blonde looked off into the direction that he believed that Konoha was.

* * *

Tenten was familiar with waking up in the forest with the sound of the bird's morning songs, or the cool breeze of early mornings blowing through the trees above her. What she was not used to was waking up to her ever-energetic sensei screaming of youth. She zipped open her tent and peered out, what she saw was Gai and his clone Lee embracing with tears falling from their eyes. Gai broke the embrace when he noticed his lone female student before approaching her and lunging at her in an attempt to embrace her, she dodged the lunge and scurried away.

Gai looked back at her, "Tenten-san my most youthful female student, I am overcome with YOUTHFUL energy at hearing about your relationship."

She arched an eyebrow in confusion as Neji walked up beside her, "Lee told us about your relationship with Naruto Uzumaki," the fate believing man said. Tenten blushed before glaring at Lee, the bowl-haired boy smiled and struck a cool guy pose. Gai stood up before clearing his throat, which gained the attention of his three charges, "As much as I would like to congratulate young Tenten on this relationship. Im afraid we must continue on our journey to Suna." The bowl-haired teacher said before the four of them, the young weapon mistress traveled at high speed's through the trees alongside her team with a smile on her face as she anticipated meeting with the sand siblings again. However, Gaara would still be the murderous psychopath he was when they had first met him, seeing Temari and Kankuro could be nice.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the gate of Suna, "Holt," said a Suna jonin as he approached the Konoha ninja. "State your name's and business."

Gai strolled up to the Suna jonin, the man looked apprehensively at the bowl-haired man. "My name is Misato Gai and these are my students Negi Hyuuga, Tenten, and Rock Lee. We come to deliver an invitation to the Kazekage about the upcoming Chunin exams," he said with a smile.

The man nodded before stepping aside, "You can find Kazrkage-sama on the top floor of the tallest building," he said while pointing to a large sandstone building. Gai nodded and thanked the man before the team was moving again to deliver the message. As the group walked Tenten was glancing around at the people in the marketplace, the vendor's sold jewelry while others sold ninja tools. However the merchandise wasn't what eventually caught her eye, no that honor was her future blonde friend Temari. The wind mistress stool at a stall looking through the merchandise, each of her brothers on her flanks, the shop owner looked terrified perhaps too scared to refuse service to anyone in the company of Gaara. The young weapon mistress glanced at the red-haired boy and was startled to find that he was staring at her, she smiled and waved nervously before running to catch up with her team. Unaware that Gaara's narrowed eyes were following her.

Once they reached the Kazekage's office she noticed the Suna leader sitting at his desk reading over paperwork, she hummed in amusement as she knew the true enemy of all Kage, paperwork. More than once Naruto had come home late for came home complaining about the mountain of paperwork that he had waiting for him once he opened the door. The sand leader looked up from his paperwork before putting the paper down. "Ah Konoha-nin," the man said. His voice seemed to radiate with power and his posture seemed to demand respect, "I was made aware of your arrival."

"Yes Kazekage-sama, we were sent to offer you an invitation to this year's chunin exam's held in Konoha," Gai said as he approached the man's desk, the leader nodded.

"Very well, you may tell your Hokage that I accept his invitation."

"Most youthful KazeKage-sama, " Gai said before turning towards his team and smiled. "Now let us return to Konoha so we can inform Hokage-sama of this decision."

The Wind shadow stood, "No need, you all must be tired after your long journey. Please rest your heads for the night."

"Are you sure, sir? We would hate to impose," the Kage simple nodded, Gai smirked. "Very well," he turned towards his genin, "What do you all think?"

"Sure, my dogs are barking," Tenten said with a smile. She cared very little if she could stay in Suna or sleep in the forest, what she wanted to do was see Temari again. Even if they weren't friends now they will be with time, that and she wanted to know why Gaara seemed yo glair at her when she saw him at the market.

"Might as well," Neji said flatly. He could care less.

"It is most youthful of you to offer, I would gladly accept," Lee said with a glint in his eye as he struck a cool guy pose.

* * *

Later that afternoon, deep within the mind of the young weapon mistress lay a sleeping fox, he had been sleeping for month's at this point, slowly regaining the power he had lost to force his host and himself back in time and to transfer the memories of the future to her mate. Kurama had risked quite a lot to enact their plan's of changing the future, no longer could he call himself the nine-tailed fox strongest of all the bijuu. He had sacrificed a great deal of his former power to complete the time leap and even more for the memory transfer, now you could hardly consider him the nine-tailed fox his power now resembled that of his brother the Yonbi, the four-tailed monkey. Son Goku.

The great foxes eye opened

slightly sniffing around he could smell the scents of the room his host was in due to the new seal on Tenten's body he could experience the world around him through her sense. That's when he felt it, a strong presence, a very malevolent chakra. Shukaku.

The fox stood upright as he noticed his brother's chakra signature getting closer to his host. **"Girl!"** The great fox shouted from within her mind, Tenten not being read for his shouting cupped her hands over her ears.

"What! What the hell was that!"

**"Who do you think it is!"**

The weapon mistress's eyes shot wide open as the realization hit her, Kurama was still in her body. But why? "K... Kurama is that you."

**"Yes now we dont have much time, Gaara is coming. You're in danger."**

Tenten lifted her shirt slightly and noticed a seal in the shape of a foxes head on her stomach, was this the price she paid for being sent back in time? How long has this been noticeable? How Naruto seen it and not informed her about it? She glanced from her fox seal to the door, Gaara was coming did he know? Was he coming to kill her? "Alright, but I have so many question's."

Then came the knocking at the door, the young kunoichi narrowed her eyes at the door knowing full well that the psychopathic Gaara was on the other side. She opened the door to see the red-headed jinchiriki standing there with his two siblings, "Well if this wasn't a surprise," Tenten commented as the three sand siblings walked into her room.

"Who are you," Gaara said, his voice sounded tired, more than likely do to the fact that the shikaku won't let him sleep, "Why does mother want your blood."

Temari and Kankuro looked shocked as they glanced from their younger brother to the bun-haired girl who's facial expression did not change after receiving a death threat from Gaara. TenTen smiled, "I didn't expect to see you so soon Gaara of the sand."

The Suna genin's brow furrowed, "How do you know my name? Are you an assassin?"

She blinked before looking over his shoulder at Temari before looking back to him. "Nope, im here with my team to deliver a message to the Kazekage," she said with a soft smile.

Gaara became frustrated and stamped his foot which alerted his two siblings that something bad was about to happen. "Than how!"

"Simple," the bun-haired girl said. "Kyuubi told me," this information seemed to stun the three genins of the sand. Temari who had heard rumor of the Kyuubi was afraid of its mighty power, for good reason it was the strongest of all the bijuu. Kankuro arched an eyebrow at this as he was taught that the fox had been killed by the fourth Hokage.

"A..are you... its jinchiriki?" Temari asked in fear if Gaara could do so much damage as he could with only the one tail in him than what could a person with the nine tails do.

Tenten shook her head, "sort of," she admitted, it wasn't like she could lie to her best friend, even if she had no idea you two were best friends. Temari arched an eyebrow in confusion as she looked the girl up and down, Kankuro looked at his brother as Gaara started to grow frustrated with the bun-girl. "Beside's you needn't worry about me, it's my fiance that you should worry about."

Kankuro grew confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Tenten smiled lovingly as she thought about her blonde soulmate. "He's my other half in more ways than one."

Gaara narrowed his eyes at the girl before storming off, his siblings followed closely behind him. Temari preplaced a hand on his shoulder, "Gaara-san don't let her get to you remember the plan." However Gaara wasn't paying attention because 'mother' wanted her blood, he didn't know why but one thing was for sure that she was strong far stronger than she was letting on. He could practically feel the bijuu chakra.

Tenten watched as the trio left until the sound of her rumbling stomach began to growl, she frowned before heading out for the local food stand, Walking out of the inn she turned towards the small cafe next door, unaware she was being watched.

Entering the building she quickly noticed two of the three sand siblings, Tenten smiled as she saw a slight smile on the face of the blonde. Kankuro and Temari arched an eyebrow as the bun-girl saw on the other side of the booth facing them, "Fancy running into you two, wheres Gaara?"

"He's out," Kankuro said while crossing his arm's, "What do you want bun-girl," which earned him a glare from Tenten and an elbow to the ribs from Temari for being rude.

"The name's Tenten, future wife of Konoha's future Hokage," she said proudly. She looked at the two and frowned, "Do the cook's try to poison Gaara, is that why he's not here?"

"That's right, you did say something about a fiance," Temari said recalling their earlier conversation at the inn, the weapon user nodded. "Why would they try and poison him?"

The bun-haired girl looked into the wind mistresses eyes, "Because he's a Jinchiriki ain't he?" The two sand siblings stared at the Konoha kunoichi as if they had seen a ghost, no one outside of the village was to know Gaara's condition.

"How do you know, " Kankuro said with a certain edge to his voice that alerted the two Kunoichi that the wrong answer promised pain.

Tenten smirked, "Living with a Jinchiriki, I've gotten pretty good at finding the other's." She lied, future knowledge was good for something's after all, that and having a fraction of the mightiest of the Bijuu inside of her helped.

The sand siblings paled. "There are others, " Kankuro paled knowing the destructive power Gaara possessed and to imagine more people like him or even stronger than him was terrifying. "You live with one?" Temari seemed to fear this girl slightly more if she could handle a Jinchiriki's psychopathic tendencies and still be as happy as she was than something was seriously wrong with her.

"Of course, we're engaged," she said as the waitress left having received the young weapon mistresses order. Tenten turned to look back at the sand siblings, much to her secret amusement they looked at her as if she had grown a second head. She arched an eyebrow and tilted her head to the left slightly, "What?"

Temari decided to answer as her brother seemed to shocked by the fact that this girl lived with someone like Garra, even for them who were his family it was hard to be around him. Even if she hated to admit it, but she was afraid of her little brother. "How do you deal with it, I mean Gaara's..."

"...Psychopathic, homicidal and nothing but angry," Tenten finished the blonde's sentence for her, Temari nodded and the Konoha ninja could see the look of guilt in her eyes. She didn't want to think of her brother like that, it hurt her more than anyone knew. "My Naruto-kun is nothing like that, even if he does have every right to be."

Kankuro who had broken from his stupor looked at the girl, "What do you mean, wouldn't you feel hurt if he. Ya know started being all cold and stuff."

She didn't know how to answer that, she adopted a thinking pose, "Maybe if he attacks our friends or my tou-san," she placed a hand on her chin. "But the civilians and some shinobi deserve it."

She looked out the window thoughtfully. "He was an orphan, ya know," she said. "Everyone old enough to remember the Kyuubi attack knew of his status and... hated him for it and taught the children to hate him as well." The sand siblings look at the girl with carrying emotions on their face's, Temari felt bed for this Naruto person, if only because Gaara could have easily lived like that, hated by the village, hated by the children but instead they feared him. In some way's to be feared is better than being hated.

Tenten shook her head of the thought of the violence that was Naruto's childhood, luckily meeting's were minimal but it truly was a sad existence to be ignored. "He could have turned out just like your brother."

"How so," Kankuro asked.

"If he didn't have people who genuinely cared for him growing up," she shook her head. That little tidbit of information made the wind specialist think about their childhood with Gaara, how their father kept them separated from him along with the assassination on attempts, no wonder he turned out the way he had.

* * *

The blonde time traveler lay there in the grass of the forest as he dreamed his dreams, the night prior he had blown up at young Inari for the words he spoke about suffering, he spent the rest of the night training and thinking about how he spoke to the boy and felt bad for yelling at him... its just that it was so infuriating. Here he is complaining about suffering and loss while sitting in a warm and loving home eating an actual meal while people in this very village struggled to get what he has, some even going hungry tonight. Talking like he owns the rights to suffering while Naruto had spent countless nights alone, cold and hungry. Even Sasuke had more of a right to brood than he did.

Naruto had woken slightly when he started to hear the unmistakable sound of foot step's, he kept his eyes closed and his face as neutral as possible but smiled internally because he knew it was Haku. He only opened his eyes when he felt the Ice ninja poking at his cheek, he cracked open an eye.

"Oh," Haku said tentatively, "I didn't mean to wake you."

Naruto sat up before holding a hand over his mouth to hide his yawn, "It's fine, really shouldn't be sleeping out here anyway."

Haku stood up while holding his basket of herbs, "What are you doing out here?"

"Training."

The long-haired man arched an eyebrow, "Training, are you a ninja?"

Naruto nodded at the question and smiled, "Yup, and not just any ninja," he said before standing, "Im gonna be the future Hokage of Konoha."

Haku smiled slightly at hearing the boy's dream, it was nice to have a dream. "Hokage huh. Then you should know that to be strong what you need is-"

"Someone to protect," Naruto finished for him, Haku nodded.

"So do you have that someone," the long-haired boy asked, Naruto nodded. It wasn't like he had just one person he was to protect but instead an entire village, sure he could say something cheesy and romantic about Tenten and it would be true, he would sooner die than let anything bad happen to her. Though she would probably kick his rear end all the way back to Konoha for saying such a thing, she was a fierce kunoichi whose skill with a blade was un-matched.

The blonde looked at Haku, "Can I ask you something?"

The brunette smiled, "You just did," Naruto deadpanned at this and the boy chuckled. "What is it," he said with a sweet smile.

"What's with the basket, picking flowers," the blonde said with his hand cupped behind his head.

Haku looked from him to the basket, "Im collecting herb's, my... friend you see. They're sick."

The blonde adopted concerned features, "Well I hope he's ok," which alerted Haku slightly. 'I didn't say it was a he.'

Though the fake hunter ninja kept his stoic expression as to not tip of his enemy that he didn't trust him, "Thank you, I too hope he recovers quick."

The blonde smirked as the fake hunter turned and started walking away, though he tried his best to hide it Haku's shoulders were rigid, "Until next time," he said in a sweet voice, "Hunter-san."

This caused Haku to freeze momentarily as he slid his right hand into his left sleeve and retrieve some of his hidden senbon, in one motion he turned and unleashed the volley of deadly needles, Naruto jumped back. "Whoa!"

Haku retrieved another set of senbon but did not lob them at the blonde, Naruto held both hands up in mock surrender. "Im not looking for a fight," he said with a nervous chuckle.

Haku narrowed his eyes, "How is it you know I was the hunter-nin," he said through gritted teeth.

Naruto blinked, "You'll be surprised at the things I know," he smiled but when he saw that Haku hadn't relaxed, he sighed, "I have... a really good sense of smell, I can also smell Zabuza-san on you."

"And what do you plan to do with the information of his continued existence," the brunette said still ready to attack should the blonde make a move that he deemed as hostile.

The blonde shook his head, "Nothin, beside's they already know, beside's I have no intention of making enemies of either you nor one of the 7 swordsmen."

Hearing the boy's words made Haku relax slightly but not drop his guard or put away his weapon's, much to Naruto's chagrin. Suddenly inspiration struck, the young time traveler smiled, "I have a proposition for you."

* * *

Thank the gods that I finally finished that, in all honesty, I had hoped that I would have had it finished by the beginning of the month but this last scene with Naruto had me stumped, I just couldn't figure out how to write it.

Anyway, here it is, im currently at work so im going to take this home and spell check it before doing any final edit's and then I should have it uploaded by later tonight.

Its come to my attention that im around halfway through with this, at least I believe it's about halfway... anyway I was thinking about what fic I would pursue next. I have three I enjoy so far.

First is a fic where Naruto is the jonin sensei of team 7, which would consist of Sasuke, Sakura, and Kiba. It's a NaruSaku fic, kinda a Sasuke change of heart kind of story.

Second is a difficult call, I have two different OC fics one for RWBY and another for Naruto. Particularly I enjoy the RWBY one and I have more written for that one but I could go with the Naruto one.

The third is My Hero Academia where Izuku has a stronger version of Inko's quirk. For his mother she can pull small objects toward her telekinetically for him he's not hindered by size.

Which one would you all like to read?


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello everyone, im glad you all could make it. Sorry, it took so long to finish this chapter, things at work had been crazy stressful with the holiday season and all. That wasn't the only reason for my inability to finish this chapter during the self-imposed deadline that I created, for the enemy has barred its head once again, the bain of my existence, FIGHT SCENES!.**

**Why are fight scenes so hard to write, at first I thought it was just me but I talked with a friend of mine that writes fanfiction, he and I work together. He has similar problems with fight scenes. That happened then both Pokemon Sword and Shield dropped, I managed to beat that with a mono bug team, then I also had to play Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, which was awesome.**

* * *

When Haku went out to collect herbs to heal the mist swordsmen's injuries, Zabuza didn't expect him to return with the same blonde that had fought against him. At first, Zabuza was furious thinking that Haku had betrayed him but soon discovered the reason for the blonde's arrival.

"I propose an alliance," Naruto spoke with an edge to his voice that seemed to command authority. The mist demon arched an eyebrow in confusion as he stared at the young genin. Not receiving a tongue lashing from the swordsman Naruto continued, "Stop coming for Tazuna-san head and you two," he pointed from Zabuza to Haku, "I can get you position's in Konoha's shinobi force."

Haku looked at the boy through wide eyes for a moment before turning away, how could such a child offer such a thing, what power did he have to make such a claim?, but that wasn't the only thing on the young ice wielder's mind for Naruto said this with such confidence. Zabuza began to chuckle, "No deal," Naruto frowned at this. "We have a mission and your games will not get in the way of that."

The blonde time traveler sighed, "Its no game Zabuza-san, someone like Gato would never honor the price you've agreed upon. He'll sooner stab you in the back," he said. "While I offer you salvation from the hunters that are tracking you and a place to rest your heads for the night."

The swordsmen scoffed, "Gato's no match for me if he tries then he'll surely regret it." Naruto rolled his eyes at the man's overconfidence.

"Clearly," Naruto said after a moment, "If you're at your best that's why he'll only strike after the fight between you and my team when you're weak."

Haku stared at the boy that stood next to him, what made this boy believe that Zabuza could be defeated let alone be seen as weak. Though it was logical for a swine like Gato to strike when his opponent was at his weakest. Zabuza scoffed, "You pathetic lot wouldn't even be a challenge for me."

The blonde's left eye twitched slightly, sure he didn't think convincing Zabuza to disobey his current contract would be easy but the man just making this hard for the blonde. Naruto lifted his arm which made Haku twitch slightly as he went to grab his senbon, the blonde sighed and messages the bridge of his nose. "So there's nothing I can say to convince you?"

"Not a chance," the masked man snarled. "I would sooner fall on my blade than work with Konoha."

The boy scratched at the back of his head, "Damn I was hoping we could work together... oh well," he said as his arm fell to his side and a kunai slid into his hand. Haku noticed this and in a quick motion volleyed a set of senbon that imbedded themselve's within the blonde's arm.

***Poof***

Haku blinked as the blonde exploded into smoke.

* * *

Naruto sighed as the memories of his clone began to come to him, damn him, Zabuza was a stubborn fool. The blonde frowned as he cupped his hands behind his head, the plan to work with the duo of missing-nin was a bust, undone by the ego and hubris of the man feared as a demon. He needed a new plan, the future cooperation of Zabuza and Haku could be tremendously helpful in his efforts to kill Sasuke.

Naruto shook his head, thinking about it wouldn't help him, if Zabuza was too much of a fool to ally himself with the blonde than there was no skin off Naruto's nose.

"Glad you could join us, Naruto," the blonde's attention shifted from his thoughts to the man who spoke. Kakashi stood with Sasuke and Sakura to his flanks, the cycloptic man sighed. "Now let's get to training."

"Sensei," the silver-haired jonin glanced at his pink-haired charge. "Can we train in something else, Naruto-kun and I already completed the exercise."

The man hummed as he heard this, "Alright," he sighed, Naruto's eye twitched at the man's bored tone. "Today we'll learn you elemental affinities."

Naruto smiled as his eyes gained a bright gleam, elemental manipulation was something he had just barely managed to scratch the surface of in his training. He couldn't train in it with the other's around and have them grow suspisions of his exponential growth. But now he could train in his wind affinity without a care in the world.

"Elemental affinity? What's that sensei," Sakura asked with raised eyebrow's. Kakashi's right hand disappeared into his kunai pouch and returned with three pieces of paper in his hand.

"Elemental affinities are something everyone who can use chakra is born with, there are 5 different affinities. Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning," he listed the 5 elements as he handed the genin a paper each. "These papers are made from a special tree that can be used to test your affinities. Just channel some chakra into the paper and I'll let you what you get."

Sakura stared at the man before turning her attention back towards the paper in her hand, narrowing her eyes she pulled upon the warmth that was chakra. Leading it through her body to her arm and finally into the paper, she watched in amazement as the paper seemed to crumble into dust.

"An Earth affinity," Kakashi said with his trademark eye smile. Sasuke channeled some chakra into his paper, the parchment crumpled into a ball before being engulfed in fire. "Your an Uchiha so a fire affinity's a given, but to have a secondary lightning affinity is impressive."

Sasuke smirked arrogantly and Naruto sighed as he saw it. The blonde already knew what his affinity was, wind nothing special nothing more just wind. One of the rarest affinities to have in fire country, he channeled chakra into the paper and stared in shock. Contrary to last time he learned of his affinity where the paper only slips in two this time the paper seemed to dampen significantly and split three times. Kakashi smiled under his face mask

"Nicely done, Naruto you have two strong affinity's for water and wind," the cyclops said. Naruto remained speechless as he stared at the damp pieces of chakra paper in his hand, completely oblivious to Sakura's congratulations. Why had he gained an affinity?

Could it have been Kurama? Naruto furrowed his brow as he thought on this, the furball may have gifted him a secondary affinity when he transferred himself into the younger Naruto. He shook his head, no time to dwell on that, he would simply ask him when he saw him again.

Kakashi cleared his throat, before making a hand sign Naruto had never seen him make. Before the genin knew what was happening two other Kakashi's poofed into existence. Naruto was awed that the man could perform the shadow clone jutsu, he had never done that before.

"Whoa," the blonde said, "I didn't know you knew the shadow clone jutsu, Kakashi-sensei."

The silver-haired man nodded, "of course, though I can't use it as you do. You simply have more chakra than I do." He said this idly without thinking and didn't notice the looks of shock that appeared on his other two students' faces. "Now, each of you will go with a clone and will learn a jutsu for your elements."

The Kakashi's split up and took each of the kids. Naruto stood watching as his Kakashi took two scrolls from his vest. "Alright Naruto, I'll be teaching you the Wind Bullet jutsu and Water Prison jutsu."

* * *

Tenten strolled through the streets of Suna, basking in the cool air of the early morning. Today was the day of team 9's departure which was why she was out and about, Suna was known for many things like sand and its abundance of shinobi with the wind affinity but neither of these things interested her at the moment.

No the reason she was in the street was to pick up Suna's famous jelly-filled dumplings. They were the weapon mistresses favorite treat in the future if she let an opportunity to grab a couple dozen of them slip by she would sorely regret it. Just the thought of the salty and crunchy exterior and sweat juicy jelly interior made her mouth water. Temari would often bring them when she came to visit for diplomatic reasons.

In a few years, the small stand would expand but in this time period, the stand was no bigger than Naruto's favorite ramen stand. The shop keeper, an older man with rich brown eyes and matching hair smiled at her, "Hello ma'am, what can I get you today?"

Tenten smiled and took a sniff, the aroma of the dumplings filled her nostril's, "I would like two dozen of your jelly-dumplings please."

The shop keeper looked at her," A.. alright," he stuttered out before going to work collecting her order, Tenten smiled in anticipation of the sweat and savory confection. She turned her back to the stall and watched as the people made their way through the street her smile widened when she saw Temari.

"Temari-chan!" She exclaimed the wind mistress turned toward the voice before walking up to the bun girl.

"Morning," she said with a small smile. "Shouldn't you and your team be getting ready to leave?"

The bun girl nodded, "They are, im just getting some treats for the road."

The sand kunoichi arched an eyebrow, "Treats?"

"Yup, buying two dozen jelly-dumplings," she said as the man handed her four boxes that contained 6 dumplings each. She smiled before handing the kind shop keeper his money. Tenten opened a box and handed Temari a dumpling, "Want one?"

Temari accepted the treat before plopping it into her mouth, she smiled satisfactorily. "Delicious."

The weapon mistress nodded her agreement as she popped one of the savory-sweet confections into her mouth, her and Temari walked down the street and nibbled on the delicious treats. They passed many civilian some shopping and other's loitering, Tenten couldn't wait to get home and rest in her bed and get ready for the upcoming chunin exams, this time around things would be different this time the wind woman standing next to her wouldn't come out victorious. She was a Jinchuriki... half-jinchuriki... pseudo-jinchuriki, whatever you call her she was different from what she was then. The bun girl looked at the fan wielder that walked next to her, "So, you going to be participating in the chunin exams?"

Temari nodded, "Yeah." Her eyes dropped slightly as she thought of how her brother, Gaara wasn't someone that should be let around other people.

"I can't wait to show you around," she said with excitement in her voice, Temari glanced at her and smiled. "And dont worry about Gaara."

"What makes you say that?"

The Konoha Konoichi swallowed another dumpling. "Naruto-kun will set him straight," she said with a tone of voice that made her sound so certain. Temari didn't know what to make of this girl, where did she get this confidence from and why on earth would it be placed in a jinchuriki.

Temari was about to speak but was interrupted by a boy wearing an all green spandex suit. "Tenten-chan!" the boy exclaimed, "How is my most youthful teammate!"

The sand konoichi was taken aback by the boy's boisterous personality if it bothers Tenten she didn't show it. "Im fine Lee-san, are we ready to go?"

Lee nodded vigorously before returning to the side of what looked like an older clone of himself and a boy with the unmistakable eyes of the Hyuuga. The bun girl turned to Temari, "Welp im off," she said while handing the wind mistress another dumpling. "Till we meet in the chunin exams."

The sand konoichi nodded, "You bet."

Konoha's team 9 left the village gates of Suna for their long journey home. Tenten couldn't help but be sad to be leaving her friend, she was all too accustomed to her living in Konoha. With a sigh, she joined her team up in the trees. Gai seemed to be smiling brightly as ever as he encouraged his youthful students, Lee seemed to be eating up every word of the man's tirade. Neji scoffed and glanced at Tenten. "What?"

"You shouldn't be consorting with the enemy," the Hyuuga said in a superior tone of voice. Tenten scoffed, she hated this Neji.

"We were just talking... beside's last I checked Konoha and Suna were ally's," she said before speeding ahead of him. The villages were ally's and coming soon that alliance would be tested, she hoped they could do something to stop it.

**"Not likely,"** she was startled by the voice in her head. She almost forgot she contained a fragment of Kurama within her, part of the yin chakra Minato severed from the Kyuubi before sealing it's Yang half into Naruto.

'What do you mean, not likely?'

Kurama smirked from within the weapon's mistress's mind. **"Time is a delicate thing, it can only take but so much deviation before crumbling." **Tenten thought on this as she and her team lept through the trees leading to Konoha.

* * *

Waking from the previous days training Naruto stared at the ceiling of the guest room, he blinked and rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he sat up. The first thing he saw was the lady of the house Tsunami. "Morning, Tsunami-chan."

The mother looked at him, "Sorry... did I wake you. Kakashi-san said you should rest, you came home pretty late last night," she said as she approached him. Naruto looked at her before looking out the window that he lay beside.

"What time is it?"

Tsunami arched an eyebrow and looked at a wall clock that hung just above the window. "Almost 10:30 a.m."

The blonde nodded, thankful he hadn't overslept and missed Gato's thugs. He looked at the woman as she walked out of the room, he made a simple hand sign and a puff of smoke later a Naruto clone stood directly next to him.

"Protect them," the original order, getting a nod from the clone, Naruto opened the window and jumped through it.

Leaping from roof to roof the blonde spotted the thugs he had beaten before, he moved slightly to intercept them but turned and moved back towards the bridge. This was the defining moment for Inari, these goons played a very important role in it and the blonde time traveler was not going to interfere with that.

Approaching the bridge Naruto could see the mist consume his friends, thankfully the ice mirrors hadn't been erected. He smiled slightly at this thanking Kami that he didn't have to infiltrate the dome again.

"Thanks for waking me up," Naruto said once he arrived. Zabuza smirked as he saw the blonde.

"Welcome to the party blondie," Naruto scowled at this, he did not like being called blondie. "Not like one more genin will keep me from killing you, lot."

Naruto glanced from the mist demon to the boy in the fake hunter mask, his eyes glowed with resolve. "Hello Zabu-chan," the bandaged man snarled at the boy as he took a stance. Haku's eyes softened behind his mask at the appearance of the blonde, his form brought back memories of his offer. Salvation from their pursuers, from the Mizukage's unjust bloodline war, a place to call home. However, Zabuza was a stubborn man that is very set in his way, the freedom to do what he wanted when he wanted, to kill when he wanted, no he wouldn't surrender that for a place to belong.

Making a single hand sign Zabuza conjured up a heavy mist, Naruto, however, was prepared for as he weaved through hand signs. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough," the blonde Jinchiriki exclaimed as he pushed his palms outward and a powerful gust of wind erased the mist. Kakashi lept into action and engaged Zabuza, Haku went to aid his master but was interrupted as Sasuke hurled a great fireball at the boy.

"Nice Sasuke-san," Naruto said as he watched the ravenette en

The masked ninja stood kunai against kunai with the lone Uchiha, his eyes narrowed under his mask as he watched the blonde approach. With a deep breath, he was thankful that the rain from the night prior had been as heavy as it was.

Kakashi watched in amazement as the fake-hunter weaved through hand signs using only a single hand, it was uncommon for this to be done and it took much concentration to do. One had to be extremely focused or be very familiar with the jutsu, "Ice Style: Thousand Senbon of Death."

Kakashi's one visible eye widened, Ice Style was a Kekkei Genkai of the Yuki clan of Kirigakure no Sota. He had heard that the entire clan had been killed do to the Fourth Mizukage's bloodline civil war, the leader feared the shinobi of these special bloodlines and sought to destroy them all. The cycloptic jonin moved to aid his genin but was then stopped as Zabuza lunged toward him with his oversized blade, Kakashi blocked said blade with a kunai.

"Not so fast Hatake," Zabuza smirked behind his bandage's. "Your fight's with me." The silver-haired jonin watched helplessly as the ice needles barreled down toward his student. Sasuke glanced around before gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, 'Come on Sasuke,' he thought to himself, 'Remember the training, draw on my chakra.'

He focused inward, searching for the warmth that was his chakra, the ravenette's eyes opened wide as he pulled upon the warmth. 'Remember the academy, chakra can be used for many things, such as increasing physical abilities.'

Sakura watched as her long-time crush was helpless to dodge the ice needles, Haku sneered underneath his mask. He hated killing, absolutely detested it but to complete the mission and protect his master he had to force himself to take life, or so he thought. Suddenly Sasuke appeared at his backside, "Seem's your not as fast as you think."

Sasuke kicked the fake-hunter away, Haku twirled as his trajectory slowed. Naruto saw this and made a single hand sign before another Naruto popped into existence, the two blondes nodded at each other. The original clenched his fist tightly as he channeled as much Bijuu chakra into his fist as possible. The clone slid underneath a now standing Haku before turning on the masked shinobi and went to strike the brunette, however, Haku anticipated this and blocked the strike with his palms. The clone smirked and poofed out of existence and the original struck with his Bijuu enhanced fist, the boy jumped away in surprise as the blonde's fist made contact with the bridge.

The ground splintered as Haku cursed himself for letting his guard down around Naruto, 'rookie mistake,' he scolded himself. From his position with Zabuza, Kakashi smiled underneath his face mask, Naruto had grown since they had become a team greatly. His strategy was sound, the fake-hunter had already noticed him and since the blonde's true skillset was still unknown to the enemy he had created a shadow clone to distract the masked-shinobi and when he was distracted he struck.

It was a sound strategy that would have worked if his opponent was anyone else, however, this shinobi had mountains more experience than Naruto did. "Dont take your eyes off me," Zabuza exclaimed as he swung the behemoth sword, Kakashi ducked to strick.

"Wouldn't dream of it," the silver-haired jonin said.

* * *

Inari watched as the two thuggish men entered his home, he stood there helplessly as he watched the men approach the young boy trembled as he saw the two men. One was a man with ash grey hair and a faded blue hoodie with a white sash around his waist holding up his katana, the other was a shirtless man with bandages on his stomach, he wore his brown hair in three buns one on the bottom of his hairline just above the nape of the neck, one on the center backside of the head and another just above his forehead, he had a brown bears and wore an eyepatch over his right eye.

Inari stood between the men and his mother Tsunami who he swore he would protect from the two swordsmen that had cut through the very wall of their home.

"You're the daughter of Tazuna, right?" The ashen-grey haired man said with a devilish smirk plastered across his face that promised pain, Inari gulped. "Sorry, but you're going to have to come with us."

When it became clear neither Inari or Tsunami would move the shirtless man moved in. He lunged forward and backhanded the small child across the face making the boy crash against the wall, the ashen-haired man glanced at Inari. "We're only for the women," he said before turning back toward the now kneeling Tsunami. Tears stung her eyes not only because of fear for her safety but also fear for the well being of her child. "She'll make an excellent hostage."

'Hostage!' The word echoed through the child's mind as if the word were screamed into a large valley. He couldn't allow these men to take his mother and do kami knows what too her, the boy shakily stood his ground. 'I have to be brave,' Inari thought to himself, 'To save Kaa-san'

The mother saw this, "Inari-chan!" She exclaimed gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "Dont move, I can't have you getting hurt."

"But, Kaa-"

"Listen to your Kaa-san, kid," the ashen-haired man said. He smirked as he placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, "You wouldn't want to get hurt..." he unsheathed an inch of the blade, "Would you?"

"Stop!" Tsunami shouted. "If... If you hurt him... I s..swear I'll bite my tongue off," the young mother said hoping beyond hope that they valued her as a hostage enough not to attack her son. The man re-sheathed his blade with a satisfying click.

"It's your lucky day kid," the man said. "We need her alive, so you should be thanking her."

The shirtless man narrowed his eyes in annoyance, "man, this isn't enough."

"Relax, you just tried out your new sword. You should be satisfied."

The eye-patch wearing man scratched his bandaged stomach, "Boar blood is unfit to cristen a fine blade," the man said as he turned towards Tsunami, "Though I wouldn't mind christening my blade with her juices," the man said with a perverse grin as he went to grab the woman, Tsunami flinched away and just as she did a three-pronged kunai embedded itself within the man's hand. The shirtless man pulled his arm back in pain, "What the hell!"

"If you dare touch her," said a voice from the corner of the room, the thugs including Inari and Tsunami looked in the direction of the voice only to find Naruto standing there with hate in his eyes. Naruto Uzumaki was many things, Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, proud holder of the title prankster from hell, time traveler, future husband of Tenten but there was one thing no one could dispute. Naruto Uzumaki hated rapists to the very center of his core. **"I'LL KILL YOU," **Naruto said as he summoned a small portion of Kurama's chakra.

The young Jinchuriki flashed our of existence before reappearing in front of the man, his right hand gripped the kunai of his father while in his left was a fully charged, "Rasengan!"

The shirtless man was sent spiraling through the hole he cut into the side of the house, the ashen-haired man glanced from the path his friend had been shot out of to the boy who had attacked them. Quickly he went to grab at his sword but stopped when he felt a fist impact itself with his stomach. He fell to Naruto's Bijuu enhanced strength

"Naruto-nii?" Inari said as he stared in awe at the blonde who had saved his mother, Tsunami was doing the same with soft eyes and a wide smile. She was beyond thankful to the young blonde for not only saving her son but herself as well. Naruto turned toward the mother and son.

"You guys wouldn't have any rope would you?"

* * *

Naruto watch over Haku's shoulder as Kakashi's hand glowed and the air around it crackled with electricity, this was the copy cat ninja's only original jutsu, Chidori. Naruto stood above Sasuke, the young Uchiha looked like a pin cushion what with all the senbon sticking out of him. The blonde lunged at Haku, kunai clashed with the fake hunters senbon with an audible clang. "It's a shame Haku-san, we could be friends."

The boy smiled underneath his mask, "I would have liked that," he admitted, "Perhaps in another life," there was a pregnant pause. "I would have liked a home."

Naruto smiled, "Then why fight me, you dont have to be on the run anymore?"

The fake-hunter shook his head, "My life belongs to Zabuza-sama, he saved me." Haku pulled his senbon away before taking a single step backward and removing his mask. "Where I come from I'm hunted because I possess a bloodline, he saved me from that hell." Haku smiled at Naruto before turning around and rushing to Zabuza's side, Naruto's eyes grew panicked. He couldn't let it happen again, not again. Naruto grit his teeth as he felt himself draw upon Kurama's chakra, he felt his teeth grow and sharpen into fang's, his fingernails elongating into claw's.

Weaving through hand signs, "Water style: Syrup Trap," the blonde exclaimed as the water around them rose from the ground and gather at his arms. He thrust his hands forward and the water stretched out and clung to Haku, the brunette's eyes widened before he tried to freeze the water that clung to him. As he tried he saw this aura of red that surrounded Naruto travel from himself to the water, this aura was hot enough to prevent him from freezing the water. He turned and saw Kakashi's Chidori approach Zabuza, his eyes widened in fear before he threw a senbon as quickly and accurately as he could. He smiled thankfully as the senbon found it's target in the Konoha jonin's neck.

Silence overtook them all as Haku fell to the ground, the red aura had started to encase him, and to his surprise, it wasn't as hot as it at first appeared. Then he felt a headache of unknown origin as he saw memories, not his own.

"Haku!" Zabuza shouted to no avail, Haku wasn't responding to the man's orders.

***Clap* *Clap* *Clap***

The group turned to face the source of the noise and saw a group of mercenary's and in the center of the group was a short plump man, Naruto's eyes narrowed as he saw the man that had led Wave Country into poverty. Gato smirked as he glanced at the bandaged man. "Well, Well, Well. Look at the so-called demon, beaten by children."

Zabuza snarled, "Gato! What's the meaning of this."

The short round man looked to his small army of thugs and back toward the bandaged man, "Business Zabuza, for what im paying you I can afford all these men," he pointed his thumb behind him. "So I decided to cut my losses."

Zabuza's teeth ground together under his bandage's, glancing to his left he saw the young blonde he had spoken with yesterday. "Looks like we're no longer enemies."

"Looks that way," Naruto said as he walked up to Zabuza. "I think I'll hold my I told you so for later," the blonde said which earned him a slight chuckle from the missing-nin. The young time traveler bent over and picked up Haku before smiling at him, "Looks like we're friends again, hm"

Haku smiled underneath his mask as Naruto helped him up, the brunette moved to remove his mask. "Looks like it," he said as he threw the mask to the side, "Sorry about your comrade."

Naruto shook his head, "Dont worry about it, he's not worth being sorry over," the blonde said this last part as he turned back toward the group of thugs. He missed the questioning look Haku gave him.

"Blondie!" Zabuza exclaimed as he bit through the bandages that covered his mouth. Naruto was seriously beginning to hate being called that. "Give me a kunai."

Naruto walked over to the man known as the demon of blood mist village and placed the hilt of the kunai in his mouth, Zabuza gripped the metallic weapon with his teeth. Naruto sighed as he wished Haku had incapacitated Kakashi sooner so Zabuza could have feeling in at least 1 arm. 'I so dont want that Kunai back.'

Naruto eyed the group of thugs and let out a breath, he arched an eyebrow as he visibly saw the breath he took. It wasn't cold enough for his breath to be visible, he turned and looked at Haku, the brunette looked at him with a questioning gaze. The young ice ninja looked at the blonde confused but slightly startled, he hadn't been using his ice techniques so why was his breath visible Haku glanced down at the bridge underneath their feet and was startled to see that the small water puddle's around Naruto's feet where frozen.

"Brat," Zabuza started gaining the attention of the two younger ninjas.

"Gato's mine," he snarled as he charged forward. His arm flailed behind him limply as he approached his target, Gato's eyes widened in fear as he took a step backward.

"Kill him!" He exclaimed in terror as he turned and ran to the back of the group. Two thugs smiled and stepped in the path of the mist demon before trying to draw their swords however Zabuza hadn't been made one of the seven swordsmen for nothing, he plunged the kunai into the stomach of the man to his left and ripping upward before turning to the other. He eyed the man before turning back toward the midget tyrant. Haku had engaged the man before his master had the chance to, Naruto smirked. Glancing behind him he saw Tazuna standing over a knelt Sakura as she wept for the unconscious Uchiha.

Turning back he charged in and blocked a man's sword as it was about to strike the demon of the mist. "Nah ah," the young blonde said as he pushed the man's sword aside with a kunai. "Zabu-chan's busy at the moment, I would ask you to leave a message," the time traveler nailed the man between the eyes with his kunai. "But your already dead."

Gato made his way to the edge of the bridge before grasping his knees and panting before turning around only to see his men being flung about by the three men. He paled when he saw Zabuza approaching him with incredible speeds, "D..D..D... Demon!"

The man lunged toward the tyrant with kunai in mouth, stabbing into his plum stomach he ripped upward. Gato coughed up blood as the kunai was removed from him, clutching at his chest he felt to warm red liquid seep through his fingers. "Y... you bastard," said as he stumbled to the side. "I... If yo..u have a D... death wish, d.. dont drag me down t.. to."

Zabuza stood at his full height only to have several swords and spears plunged into his back, the man's mouth leaked blood but he wasn't done Gato was still alive so that meant his job was not done. He lunged towards the man and sliced diagonally across his chest before kneeing the man in the stomach which threw him off the bridge and into the water's bellow. The men behind the missing-nin stared at the man known as the demon with fear, he had just killed Gato one of the most feared and influential men in all of the elemental nations. Zabuza turned and the remaining men that were still alive parted to make a path for the man.

The man wandered toward the blonde Jinchuriki, Naruto stared in shock as the man collapsed in front of him. "Zabuza-sama," Haku exclaimed as he ran to his master's side before his hands glowed with green chakra. The demon shook his head before Haku could sully his hands with his blood, "No H... Haku-san," he said weakly, "Im," cough, "Im no..not gonna make it."

"Zabuza-sama please," Haku pleaded with the man he saw as a father. "There's still time."

Zabuza shook his head before he coughed up blood, "Blondie!" Naruto heard this and walked over to the man before crouching at his side. The ex-Kiri ninja glanced to his side where the blonde was looking at him with concern etched onto his face, "D..does your offer s..still stand?" Naruto's eyes widened before he looked up at Haku's weeping form, the brunette had his eyes clinched as he shook slightly. Losing one's precious person is never easy, it was a feeling Naruto knew all too well when he witnessed the deaths of the villagers in his future. He glanced at the dying man.

"Yes, Zabuza-san?"

"I w..want you to," Cough. "Grant me... My L..ast wish," the young time traveler nodded. "H..Haku deserves a home," the man panted. "He d..deserves a place to b... belong."

Naruto nodded, "Of course, Zabuza-san." He shed a single tear for the man who had once been his enemy, he may not have known the man outside of this mission and his bingo book entry but the death of anyone is cause for sadness. Zabuza smiled contently as the rise and fall of his chest ended as a single tear cascaded from the man's left eye.

* * *

**For the Love of all that his holy, thank the gods of writing that im finally done with that. You guys have no idea how much I stressed over finishing this chapter, im pretty sure im starting to grow grey hairs from this. Originally I wanted this done late October, early November. Its late December and while I can blame the holiday season and how crazy busy its been at work, and while it has been I can't solely blame that. It was my procrastination that kept me from completing this and for that I am sorry. **

**Over the months between this chapter and last Pokemon Sword and Shield came out and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order came out and they were both awesome. I loved them both. Recently I got a work shed built so know all I have to do is build my workbench, I got a drill press for Christmas from my Mom for my knife making so im excited to get this bench built.**

**How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was pretty good I suppose, spent the day at home doing absolutely nothing. I have been thinking of starting up a new youtube channel, I think I've settled on the name of it being Master of None. Its kinda a variety channel where I will do pretty much anything I enjoy, everything from gaming to forging. I plan on streaming as well, I have a randomized ROM of Pokemon Omega Ruby on** **my computer that im looking forward to playing.**

**Master of None:** /channel/UCgDzYKbQRr-Ld4QlyuVKH5Q?view_as=subscriber


	9. Chapter 9

Standing at attention was the group known as team 7 as their sensei gave the Hokage the report about their C-rank turn A-rank mission. Naruto watched as the elderly man read through the report Kakashi had given him before glancing to his right and seeing Haku, the ice shinobi who had been entrusted to him by the dying missing-nin known as Zabuza. The blonde couldn't wait to return home to his and Tenten's apartment for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.

"This is quite the report," Hiruzen muttered before cupping his hands over his desk. The elderly man looked over the four children in front of him Naruto smiled at the man before glancing back at Haku, the former missing-nin was standing stark still with an emotionless stone face. If anyone hadn't seen the rich earthen pupils they would have mistaken him for a Hyuga. Sakura smirked while blushing as she looked at Sasuke from the corner of her eyes, the young Uchiha stood emotionless as ever in front of the Hokage.

"I suppose congratulations are in order," the elderly Hokage said as he placed his pipe in his mouth. "You may be genin but you held your own against unknown odds," Naruto subtly shook his head, unknown odds, no odds were unknown to him.

Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe before exhaling the smoke. "You three," he pointed to Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi, "are dismissed." The Hokage turned toward Naruto and Haku, "You two, stay."

Sakura glanced at the blonde with worry in her eyes, Naruto saw this and nodded signaling the pinkette he would be alright. The young Konoichi nodded before leaving the room behind Sasuke and Kakashi. "Now," the Hokage said once the other three had left. "What do we do with you?"

Naruto stepped forward, "Jiji-chan," the blonde started, "Zabuza-san asked for me to look after him, I intend to do just that."

Hiruzen nodded. "Yes, the report mentions something about a final request. What I want to know is where should we put mister..."

"Yuki, Haku Yuki."

"Right, Haku-kun. We can't allow a member of this village to be without a home," the elderly Hokage said.

"He can stay with me," Naruto chirped.

Hiruzen looked into the eyes of the young jinchuriki. "From my understanding your living with your girlfriend, how do you expect to accommodate for the extra person."

Naruto looked back at Haku, he couldn't let him be sent elsewhere in the village. That's when he remembered it, his birthright, the Namikaze estate. "We can move into Tou-san's estate."

The declaration surprised Hiruzen, to move Naruto, Tenten, and Haku into the Namikaze estate it would mean revealing to the village Naruto's true heritage. While Hiruzen liked the thought of seeing all the people who have hurt or mocked the young blonde beg for forgiveness, this would also mean Minato's enemy's outside of the village would know. He sighed, he knew it was only a matter of time till Naruto asked for his birthright.

"Very well," Hiruzen stated. "However you can't move in till after I announce your heritage to the council." Naruto nodded, Haku looked between them wondering why the blonde would need permission to move into his father's house. "Then you may move yourself, Haku-kun and your girlfriend in."

Naruto nodded before he and Haku started walking toward the door, the ice ninja walked through it before the blonde turned back toward the elderly Hokage. "Oh and she's not my girlfriend," Hiruzsn arched an eyebrow, "She's my fiance," he said walking out of the room, Hiruzen stared at the place Naruto had once been.

-break-

walking through the streets of Konoha was the young weapon mistress, the future Tenten Uzumaki. She smiled as she the apartment she shared with her soon-to-be-husband-again came into view, in her hands was a katana her father made for Naruto as an early wedding sheath of the blade was a calming midnight blue while the hilt of the sword was wrapped in orange stained leather with a black cloth tied around it. Pinned to the side was a small metallic Uzumaki symbol.

Walking through the front door the young girl noticed two pair's of shoes, she arched an eyebrow before shrugging able walking into the house. Entering the living room Tenten noticed a very pretty girl sitting on her couch, her right eye twitched. Who was this girl and what is she doing in her and Naruto's apartment?

"Hello," the girl said, the weapon mistress looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Alright," came the voice of Naruto as he walked back into the living room. The blonde glanced over and saw Tenten was home, "Oh, Ten-chan. Welcome home."

Naruto walked over and planted a kiss on her cheeks, much to the weapon mistresses delight. "So love, " he stated, "What's with the sword?"

Tenten held the sword up for her husband to take. "Tou-san made it for you, " the blonde took the blade in hand. He removed the blade from its sheath and saw the blade had the kanji for fire engraved at the base.

"Wow, " he said as he looked at the blade. He resheathed the blade, "Remind me to thank him, next time I see him."

The bun-haired girl nodded before turning back to Haku. "So, are you going to introduce us or what."

"Koi," Naruto said softly, "This is Haku-kun," the girl nodded, she had been told of the young ice user however she never expected him to look so feminine. "he'll be staying with us from now on..."

"...also he's a boy."

Tenten looked at Haku who in turn smiled and waved, the girl smiled back "Nice to meet you Haku-kun."

Haku bowed, "Likewise Tenten-san."

The bun headed girl smiled before taking Naruto by the arm and leading him into the kitchen. The blonde looked at the girl with confusion etched on his face. "Naruto-kun, whats Haku-kun doing here," she whispered as to not alert the young ice ninja. "He should be dead."

The blonde time traveler nodded, "Yeah... about that," he chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "I kind stopped him from getting killed."

"Naruto-kun," she exclaimed a bit louder. Haku glanced at the two and began to get confused. "The incredibly dangerous, time is a fragile thing. We can't be going around and altering everything we want.

The blonde arched an eyebrow, "When did you become so sage sage-like."

"I retained the Yin half of Kurama remember," she said as she poked the side of his head lightly. "He says if we alter too much we could end up ruining everything."

Naruto hummed, in truth he did forget. His half of Kurama had been dormant from him until fairly recently.

-flashback-

Naruto opened his eyes once he heard the familiar sound of water dripping, his surroundings were that of the sewer that made up space in his mind that was reserved for housing the most powerful of Bijuu. Walking down the familiar corridor's he eventually found what he was looking for, large red wooden bars that made up the cage that contained Kurama.

"Hey, Kurama!" Naruto exclaimed in excitement. The fox cracked open an eye and smirked as he saw his young friend, "It's good to see you."

**"It is,"** Kurama stated. **"To think my other half's crazy plan actually worked,"** the fox chuckled.

"Yeah," the blonde said as he gazed up at his friend. "Can't believe I thought Ten-chan would kill me."

Kurama laughed, **"Indeed, I was watching the exchange."**

"Then why am I only hearing from you now?"

The giant fox shook his head. **"I had to break through the mental barriers that prevented us from making contact,"** Kurama explained, breaking through the mental barriers was difficult. He almost cursed Minato for putting them up, however, if he didn't Naruto would have ended up like Gaara. **"Now all that's left is the seal that separates us."**

Naruto smiled as he walked forward toward the paper seal that held the cage shut. As he grabbed the corner of the seal he felt a hand grip his arm, glancing over he smiled as he saw him. "Hello, Tou-chan."

Minato Namikaze smiled as his son turned toward him before embracing him in a hug. "Naruto-kun, im glad I get to see you."

"Again," Naruto added. Minato broke the embrace as he looked his son up and down, he looked as if he was growing up well.

"Yeah, im aware of your circumstance." The blonde father looked up to Kurama who sat behind the bars. "Thank you... for saving my son."

The fox shook his head, **"You should be thanking my other half, it was his idea, not mine."**

"Yeah," came a voice from behind them. Naruto and Minato looked up and smiled as they saw Kushina Uzumaki. "I dont think I like how much you've been lying Naru-chan."

"Kaa-chan," the young blonde said as he walked up to her before she glomped him in a bear hug. Minato sweatdropped at the duo in front of him, thankful this was the boy's mindscape because if this was the real world Naruto's bones would have broken. "Im happy."

The elder blonde smiled before glancing up at the once been the scourge of the shinobi world turned his son's dearest and closest friend. "Is this really necessary?"

Naruto glanced back at the man, his resolve evident in his azure blue eyes. "Yes," he said sternly, "The crimes of Sasuke Uchiha are irredeemable, I've given him every chance and continue to give him every chance." The young Uzumaki walked to his father, "If he betrays the village again, I will kill him."

"But to kill someone so young," Kushina said as she walked up behind him.

Naruto shook his head, "When you were sworn in as Hokage," he looked into his father's eyes, "What was the oath you made."

The man smiled, "To protect the village..."

"... Whether it be to injury or death," the seventh Hokage finished for him, Minato smiled with pride. "Im still alive, so im not done yet."

The elderly man ruffled his son's hair, Kushina's eyes glowed with pride. Kurama looked at the three as they shared their moment, his young Jinchuriki had really devoted himself to the role they now play. **"The Uchiha's actions lead to the death of hundreds, if left unchecked maybe thousands,"** Kurama stated which gained him the attention of the three humans. **"If he starts down the path of darkness we will kill him,"** the fox looked at the young blonde, **"Together."**

Naruto smiled up at the fox as he walked toward the seal, gripping onto the paper seal he ripped it off the door, successfully unsealing the gates. The large wooden gates flew open as the foxes red chakra mingled with the boy's own blue chakra. The blonde felt the amazing rush of power for the second time in his two lifetimes, this time however he had the chance to truly appreciate the experience. It was as if something in him was swelling up and bursting outward into the golden chakra coak he had once worn at the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

Minato looked upon his child with pride in his eyes, Kushina smiled as both the image of herself and her husband disappeared from Naruto's mindscape.

-break-

"Yeah," Naruto mumbled as he and Tenten walked back into the living room were they rejoined Haku. The couple looked at the ice ninja before looking at each other, a silent agreement passing between them.

"Haku-kun," Tenten said gaining the attention of the feminine-looking male. "There's something you should know."

"What would that be?"

Naruto took a seat on the couch next to Haku. "Do you know what a Jinchuriki is?" The ice ninja nodded, of course, he knew what a Jinchuriki was. After all the current Mizukage was one, he was the reason Haku was nearly killed, the reason he was forced to kill. "13 years ago the Kyuubi attacked this village," Haku nodded as to signal Naruto he was following along, "In order to stop it my father sealed it... in me."

Haku was surprised, a Jinchuriki ruins his life and here he was living with one. "I need a moment," he said as he got up and walked into the guest room. This was a delicate situation for the young ice boy as he had always held distance for Yagura who had started the bloodline purge, he was a Jinchuriki. He was a monster. Naruto is a Jinchuriki, but the blonde's Halu's friend, he accepted him into his home without a second thought.

Looking at the door Haku had just fled behind Naruto was silent. He wanted Haku to understand that he was more than a Jinchuriki, that he was his friend if not blonde turned to his bun-haired wife, "Think I should have waited until after I told him about the future stuff?"

-break-

The elderly Hokage sighed as he leaned back in his chair, time sure fly's in when one is busy. It felt like only yesterday that the Konoha 9 graduated from the academy and already the chunin exams were beginning. Hiruzen watched as the jonin walked through the doors of his office.

"Greetings everyone," the old man said as he placed his pipe onto the desk. "As you all know, that time of year has come again."

"Yeah," a jonin in the crowd exclaimed, "I saw the foreign genin arrive early this morning."

The aging Hokage nodded, "Yes, so which of our own genin are capable of taking this exam."

The jonin looked at each other before Asuma Sarutobi stepped forward, "I Asuma Sarutobi, jonin sensei of squad 10 nominate Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Naru, and Choji Akamichi for the Chunin selection exams." Everyone looked at the chain smoker with wide eyes, Kakashi smirked under his face mask.

"I Kakashi Hatake, jonin sensei of squad 7 nominate Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sakura Haruno for the Chunin exam's."

"Yosh," exclaimed the ever-youthful Maito Gai. "I Maito Gai nominate my youthful students as well," everyone sweatdropped at the man's exuberance. Iruka stared wide-eyed at the jonin nominated their students, Gai he understood since they had a full year of training but the others.

"I Kurenai Yuhi nominate my genin squad Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame, Kiba Inozuka for the Chunin selection exams."

"Now wait just a moment" the crowd turned toward the source of the proclamation to find that it was Iruka Umino. "Forgive my rudeness, but those names that were just called. I know them and they are definitely not ready for these exams."

Kakashi sighed, "Iruka-san, they are ready. I myself took these exams when I was no older than them."

"Their not you," the academy teacher exclaimed.

Kakashi shook his head, "No, their better," this confused Iruka as he had been in charge of their training for 6 years. When they graduated he knew neither of them was ready for something like this. "Amongst my own team, Naruto's grown quite a lot," some shinobi quirked an eyebrow as the man talked. Naruto Uzumaki the most unpredictable knucklehead ninja, has grown up? It was almost unheard of. "He's even taken it upon himself to help his teammate, Sakura Haruno with her shortcomings and Sakura's better for it."

Other's smiled at the thought of the young hero committing himself to teamwork so readily that he would help with the development of his teammate.

Iruka not seeing a way to poke a hole through his logic sat down in a chair, he refused to believe these kids were ready. "Look," Kakashi continued, "If you dont believe me test them yourself. I guarantee you'll be surprised by the people you meet."

Oh he will, he will indeed.

-break-

Sparring was a great way to pass the time, which is why the genin of squad 7 was Naruto was having a light spar with Sakura to warm up for the day as Sasuke watched, the blonde ducked a chakra enhanced punch, he could practically hear her fist humming with chakra.

The young time traveler struck her lower stomach before sliding around her, the pinkette disengaged the blonde and held her side as she channeled chakra to the afflicted area in order to heal the soreness. "Damn it, " Sakura said faintly.

"That was good, " Naruto said while panting. "You got faster."

Sasuke watched the two, the young Uchiha may have had his difference's with the Uzumaki boy but he would be lying if he said he didn't acknowledge the boy's strength. So finding out that the pink-haired Konoichi had become strong enough to give Naruto a challenge was something to brag about. The Uchiha rose from his spot and walked over to the duo.

Naruto noticed this, cutting his eyes at the Uchiha, "What's up."

"I want to spar, " Sasuke said with determination in his eyes, Naruto sighed before stepping forward. The Uchiha shook his head, "Not with you dobe, with her."

"m..me, " Sakura stuttered out. "I can't, " she shook her head fervently. "I'm just barely strong enough to challenge Naruto-kun, no way will I be able to beat you."

The blonde internally sighed at this, his current strength was far superior to the Uchiha. With the added boost of his and Kurama's partnership, he could take on Kakashi with some difficulty. He grabbed Sakura by the arm and pulled her away. "Sakura-chan, you need to have more confidence in yourself, " he told her. "You're really strong, you could push Sasuke-san no problem."

Sakura looked at him before turning back to Sasuke and turning back toward the blonde, she was still unsure and it was clear for the young blonde to see. "Sakura-chan, " he said softly so Sasuke couldn't hear him. "You want him to notice you right?" The pinkette nodded, "Well this is your chance, show him how strong a woman you are."

"Right, " She said with a newfound determination in her voice. "Thanks, Naruto-kun, " she turned back toward Sasuke, "Alright Sasuke-kun, your on."

-break-

Arriving at the training ground to meet his team, Kakashi Hatake came across a sight he never expected to see. Naruto was sitting on a boulder watching intensively as Sakura and Sasuke sparred, he saw the young pinkette slam a first into the Uchiha's outstretched palm. Sasuke smirked before leaping backward in order to create distance before running circles around the young Haruno.

Seeing this Sakura did something he hadn't thought possible for her, she threw a powerful punch into the ground sending shockwaves into the very earth they stood upon and splintering it.

"Alright, " Kakashi exclaimed, making his presence known. "That's enough, "

The three genins walked over to their sensei expectantly. "Hey sensei, " Naruto greeted, "What are we doing today? More missions?"

"Nope."

"Are we learning new jutsu?" Sasuke asked, again Kakashi shook his head.

"Maybe more advanced chakra control exercises?" Sakura guessed.

"No, " Kakashi said, "All good guesses but alas none of you got it right. In fact, I've signed you three up for the upcoming chunin exams."

Reactions were varied amongst the children. Sasuke smirked but overall kept his stoic figure, Sakura beamed at the thought of her sensei thinking she was ready for these exams, she was excited and for good reason since graduation, she had put in a lot of work and now it was finally time for the whole village to see the fruits of her labor. Naruto smiled widely at the new's before slinging an arm over Sakura's shoulder and chuckling, Sakura began giggling as a response.

"Alright, you three," Kakashi stated, "I want you all to prepare for the exam's, so today's training's being canceled."

This left the rest of the day open for Naruto and his team, the blonde bid farewell to his team before walking away. "Hey Sasuke-kun, would you like to continue our spar?" Naruto heard Sakura say as he was walking away.

The Uchiha looked at her, "hn," he hummed. "Sure."

-break-

**Alright, done. I'm currently at work so I'll upload once I get back. Next chapter should be Iruka's test as well as Naruto's meeting with team Suna and I hope to end with Ibiki's mental mind fuck. Seriously not looking forward to figuring out how to do that, its also come to my attention that I should introduce Hinata, personally, I would like to pare her off with Haku. ****So the coldest man in Konoha has accepted Sakura's offer to spare. Haku knows about Naruto being a Jinchuriki, what will happen next?**


	10. Chapter 10

Walking into the room that housed the first phase of their exam's Naruto was hyper-aware of all the murderous looks their fellow exam takers were given them. Sakura had a look in her eyes that was an odd mixture of concern and determination, he smiled at this and patted her on the shoulder. He liked that look in her eyes it showed that she was confident in her ability to pass and showed that she wasn't cocky, unlike their third teammates. Sasuke Uchiha both Sakura's childhood crush and Naruto's worst enemy, the Uchiha had an arrogant look in his eyes that spoke of how 'superior' he was compared to the rest of these genin.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Came the ear-piercing shriek of one Ino Yamanaka as she glomped onto the object of her affection. Naruto sighed and shook his head, _'I suppose some things never change.'_

"INO-PIG, GET OFF OF SASUKE-KUN, " Sakura exclaimed, yeah somethings never change. Even after all the training and progress, they had made in making Sakura a splendid Konoichi in hopes of garnering the affections of the last Uchiha and subsequently keeping him from breaking all ties with the village, after all that Sakura's still a fangirl in some aspect.

"Oh forehead girl I see they let you in," Ino said as she took her hands off Sasuke and placed them on her hip's as she taunted Sakura. "I see they'll let anyone enter these exam's, speaking of anyone where's that loser dead last."

This got Sakura angry not soly because she insulted her but because she insulted her best friend. Natuto had selflessly sacrificed his spare time, which he could have used to better his own training or spend more time with his fiance but instead spent it correcting her own skill's. The pinkette was about to say something in defence of her friend but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder curtacy of Naruto.

The blonde time travler didn't want a fight between the two breaking out, especially not in a room full of enemies. So to end the argument he placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder and shook his head, the pinkette back down fully understanding that Naruto could protect himself. "My, Ino-chan I cant believe you've forgotten me," the boy said gaining the attention of the group, "and here I though what we had was special."

The girl in question was speechless at the sight of her fellow blonde, was this Naruto? Where was the hideous orange jumpsuit? While the boy in front of her did have Naruto's spiky blonde hair, sapphire blue eyes and those whisker marks on his cheeks his outfit was something that was very unlike the Naruto she had last seen at the academy all those months ago.

The boy wore a black sleeveless muscle shirt that hugged his body a little too well for Ino's comfort, over the shirt he had a dark green jacket that cut off just above his navel. He wore black anbu issue pants with similarly black ninja sandles, the only shred of orange on him was anarmbandd he wore on his right arm just under his shoulder. "N-Naruto is that you," the boy nodded, "When did you get so ripped."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion as to how he should answer this, sure yeah hr could say he busted his ass ever since they graduated and while that was true they would ask why and frankly he couldn't get into it. "Hard to show muscle, while wearing a baggy jumpsuit."

A boy walked up to them "Troublesome," the pineapple headed genin said. "Whats with the whole change, what happened to the orange monstrosity."

Naruto hummed in agrivation, "My fiance burned them," this was not a lie, when they had moved into the Namikaze estate she had set the lot of them on fire with a fire jutsu the first chance she got. The remark about a fiance got everyone's attention.

Sakura shook his head, "It wasn't so bad Naruto-kun," Ino's eyes widened. "You can still wear orange, just not a 'kill me' orange full body outfit."

The boy in question rubbed at the back of his head, "I suppose." If he had planned on continuing his sentence no one knows for they were interrupted by a hard thud as a head of platinum blonde hair fell hard. Ino had fainted and to everyone but Hinata they had no idea as to why. The lavender eyed Hyuga was devastated at the implications of Sakura referring to her Naruto-kun and '-kun'.

"You guys are quite loud," everyone turned and saw a silver headed boy, it took everything in his now to scowl or out right attack the boy in front of him. Kabuto Yakushi stared at the group before looking down and seeing a very unconscious Ino, with a sigh he knelt down and began using his medical ninjutsu to wake her up. "If you hadn't noticed all these genin are on edge, it would do you all well to keep quiet and lay low."

Kiba looked at the boy as he finished healing Ino, Naruto placed a hand on his own stomach as a way to calm Kurama who was snarling at the snake's right hand man. "Who are you," Choji said as the boy stood, Naruto never took his eyes off him, "My names Kabuto Yakushi, and I've been to these exam's enough times to tell you what's what around here."

"So," Sasuke said as he looked at Kabuto, "Your like what.. an informant."

The snake with glasses hummed, "Yeah, I quess you can think of it like that," Kabuto said as he took a scroll out of his back pocket and placed it on the ground before pushing chakra into it and a stack of card appeared. "See these, these are my ninja info cards. Im real good at gathering info on just about anything. People, places you name it."

The group looked amongst themselve's, begrudgingly Naruto had to agree. No informant was as in-depth as Kabuto, not even some of Jiraiya's spy's. "Do you have information of Rock Lee of the leaf, Garra of the sand, and Naruto Uzumaki of the leaf."

The group where shocked at this as two of those three names were fellow leaf ninja, and one of them was his own teammate. Naruto looked at him incredulously, as if he could not belive what the Uchiha had just said. "Oh, you know their names," Kabuto pouted, "Thats no fun."

The boy shrugged, "Oh well, lets see first up Rock Lee," he said as he pulled out a card and channeled chakra into it. "Rock Lee, current age is 15. Is a member of team 9 along with his teammates Tenten and Neji Hyuga, his sensei is Miato Gai. He has practically no skill in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu while his Taijutsu is spectacular, he's completed 57 D rank missions, 23 C rank, 32 B rank, 4 A rank and 1 S rank as a genin."

"Next is Garra of the sand, lets see," the boy grew shocked, "He's completed 89 D rank missions, 74 C-rank, 55 B-rank, 22 A-rank and 15 S-ranked missions as a genin," everyone was shocked at this, "Apparently he did all these without getting a scratch on him."

"Finally Naruto Uzumaki, it say's he's a war orphan of Konoha," Naruto rolled his eyes. "He's on team 7 along with Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno, his sensei is Kakashi Hatake, He' apparently completed 32 D-rank missions, 0 C-rank, 1 B-rank, 1 A-rank and 0 S-rank missions as a genin. He's currently engaged to Tenten from team 9," this surprised everyone that didn't already know.

Kiba glared at Naruto, "What the hell man, you skipped C-ranks all together and did both a B and A," the dog boy was angry for sure, he was supposed to be the kick as genin of the rookie 9 not the dead last. Naruto narrowed his eyes at Kiba but wasn't really annoyed by him, that B-rank wasn't supposed to be known by anyone but the Hokage, after all, it was the night that he had killed the traitor Mizuki.

"Alright," a man wearing a black jacket said as he bursts into the room, Naruto recognized the man as the proctor Ibiki, also known as the head of torture and interrogation."Everyone sit down and shut up."

-break-

Naruto sat down next to Hinata and sighed as he saw the girl flush and fidget, this was something he would have to deal with. He couldn't let her still be chasing after him romantically, he was engaged after all, which meant this was a job for Naruto Uzumaki professional matchmaker. The first choice was obviously Kiba, but the dog boy was far from the ideal boyfriend material he believed Hinata deserved, sure in the future he was kinda good enough but was he good enough was the question.

Shikamaru was also a good choice, he was smart and caring, but he ended up married to Temari and there was no way in hell he was going to mess that up. Shino was a good choice being on the same team as her and all, Choji was an option but that made Naruto shudder at who may end up with Karui in the future. The blonde sighed as he thought about it, who was left?

Shrugging these thoughts off the young Uzumaki returned his attention to the sheet of paper before him. He might as well answer at least some of these questions, nothing else to do until the 10th question was announced. The blonde got to work, was it technically cheating if he was using future knowledge he had obtained, after all, he didn't know this stuff until after he became the Hokage. This question perplexed him so much that he didn't even notice when he had answered 5 of the 9 questions, with a sigh he turned the paper over to the blank side and began to write a note to Ibiki.

"Keep an eye on Kabuto Yakushi, he has information that only the Hokage should." He wrote before turning the paper back over and resting his arms on it and his head on his arms. Knowing Ibiki the young time traveler knew he would report this directly to the Hokage and without a doubt, Naruto would be called in to talk with the old man.

"Alright, " Ibiki said when a large majority of the teams had been eliminated. Naruto raised his head and looked at the man, "It's time for your 10th question."

People cheered as this signaled the approaching end of the first exam, this test made Naruto a mental wreck the first time around so he could relate to everyone's elation. "But first I want to give each of you the chance to back out now."

"Why the hell would we back out now!" Kiba's unmistakable voice shouted.

"Because, if you were to get this question wrong you would be barred from taking the chunin exams ever again, " gasps of shock where heard all around the room. Naruto internally chuckled at this and remembered once when he had acted as a proctor for these exams, it was fun messing with the kids.

"What the hell, there are people here who've taken this exam before. You can't do this, " Kiba shouted in aggitation.

"Oh I can and I am, these other kids didn't have me as a proctor, " Ibiki said with a smirk as he saw some genin squads leaving. Naruto remembered how hopeless it felt for him and it made him angry, he remembered how Sakura had tried to quit for him.

"Yeah right!" Came the voice of the blonde as he stood up. "Remember this and remember it well, the ninja who will become Hokage is me, Naruto Uzumaki. I don't care if im a genin for the rest of my life, believe it."

His little outburst seemed to do the trick as a trio of students who were about to stand sat back down, their confidence renewed. Ibiki smiled as he glared at the young boy who had single-handedly given the entire class the confidence to continue, "Is that so?" He said with a cocky smirk that promised pain, when he saw no one make a move he smiled, "Congratulations, you all pass."

-break-

Standing outside of the forest of death the trio know as team 7 were listening to the proctor, Naruto was listening extra intently. "Alright maggots, when you hand in you waver's then come to that tent, " she pointed to a tent with two large crates and a table. "We're you will be given 1 scroll, by the end of these 5 days you will be expected to get the other scroll and be at the tower in the center of the forest.

Team 7 was first to enter the tent with their handouts, Sasuke smirked as he slid a earth scroll into his back pocket. No one was any the wiser when the young blonde slipped away from their view for a moment before re-appearing moments later, Naruto sighed.

" Hey wait," came the voice of Anko, the blonde silently sweated as he turned toward the purple-haired jonin with confusion etched on his face. It was a risky move trying to swipe a heavens scroll out from under the nose of the woman, even riskier when using the stealth skill's she helped him cultivate. Of course she would notice his movements, after all, they were based on her own. "Your Naruto Uzumaki right?"

The time traveler nodded, "Yeah?"

Anko nodded, "I hear your getting married, be careful for her sake."

The blonde would have sighed a deep sigh of relief if he wasn't currently in the woman's presents. He bowed slightly and offered a quick 'I will' before leaving and walking toward his team, Anko smirked as she watched the kid who had just skillfully stolen a heaven scroll out from under her nose walk away. "Damn that kid's good."

Team 7 waited patiently for the gates in front of them to open and when it did the trio lept into the tree's as blur's before landing in a clearing about 4-5 miles away from the starting gate. Naruto turned toward his teammates who looked at him, Sakura had an expectant look in her eye as she smiled warmly at best friend and Sasuke had a slightly annoyed expression married to his face. "Guy's I have a plan."

The Uchiha scoffed, "Now you have a plan," he said as a soft jab at his blonde teammate, Naruto blew him a raspberry before pulling out a white scroll from his ninja pouch. The blonde smirked as did the ravenette.

Sakura gasped, "Naruto-kun, you stole a heaven scroll!" The boy looked at her with a slight pout, "You could have gotten us in trouble."

"Relax Sakura-chan," surprisingly this did not come out of the blonde's mouth, the pinkette and blonde look surprised that Sasuke Uchiha had referred to his teammate with such affection. Sakura blushed as she looked down as if her feet became the most interesting thing in the world, Naruto smiled as he saw his plan starting to bear fruit. "We are ninja and Ninja don't play fair," the Uchiha turned around as to walk in the direction if the tower.

Naruto looked from him to his female teammate and smiled as he saw her blushing, he leaned in. "He called you '-chan'," Naruto said in a teasing manner before Sakura playfully slapped his arm and began walking. The blonde chuckled at himself as he bagan walking with his hands cupped behind his head.

-break-

**There it is at long last, it took me forever but finally I have something im proud enough of to share. Even if it is a tad on the short side, I realise that people may not like that Naruto is keeping Sasuke from being bit by Orochimaru but the snake has more chance's before the end of my story. In fact the Orochimaru fight was partly what her me up so much, I just couldn't wrap my head around it.****I'm slowly starting to think that I suck at writing action, what do you lot think.****Anyway sorry it took so long and hopefully my next chapter won't take as long.**


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